Mikes bits

Not for the squeamish!

2012-03-16T06:33:00.001Z

When I got up yesterday there wasnt the ususal clamour at the bottom of the stairs door from Sainsbury, he was in the kitchen throwing up a fur ball, nice I mused as I cleaned it up. He had been off his food for a day or 2 and I wondered if that could have been the reason.

The day panned out well hoovering out the pond, its amazing how much gunge settles on the bottom, it will probably want doing again in a couple of months but at least it got out all the leaves etc from autumn and winter.

The moved shed finaly got its coat of preservative that I have been promising it for some time. I did however give up on trying to get enough guttrering pieces to fit all the way around it.

Just my luck though that the DIY shops have moved to 76mm half round guttering and all my off cuts and brackets etc are 75mm, isnt life just cruel! So its a complete new set maybe today maybe Monday. I want to drain the water into the pond so there's a little challenge.

So as the afternoon drew to a close Sally arrived home and as she was getting changed I was sorting out the worming tablets for the cats as well as some food. Little sainsbury then took on an odd stance and i realised it was time for a bit of a"throw up".

Sure enough out came a load of biscuits and as they do he backed off and laid them in a neat line on the kitchen floor. Another heave and out shot a few more biscuits and attached to it was a white tape worm! he again backed off and by this time had about a foot of tape worm on the floor with the rest of it disappearing into his mouth.! I rushed across to him grabbed it and pulled out another foot or so before it snapped off!

This obviously was the reason for him being off his food. The vets just told usto let him settle down overnight and then worm him as normal in the morning.

Heres a happy snap of the parasite in all its glory!!! for reference the blue thing is 9cm/3in long, with another pic of the miscreant who disgorged it!

Pond day tomorrow!

2012-03-12T17:28:00.001Z

Having been rather chuffed at not losing any fish over the winter I spoke to a friend too soon the other day about it. This is the time though that they get stressed, sounds odd fish getting stressed I mean whats stressful about swimming around in circles? Seriously though its something to do with not feeding all winter and then all the bugs starting to grow again as the water warms up.
So at the moment we have lost one small (2 1/2inches) koi which was part of half a dozen left over from a spawn late 2010 early 2011.
We have tried all the potions to keep the stress levels down in previous years but nothing seesm to work and we laways lose a few. Now trusting in nature and our clean water regime.
So tomorrow its hacking all the water plants down a size or two then hoovering out all the gunk thats on the bottom of the pond. After that I shall put in my second pump and home made filter which worked a treat late summer and autumn last year.

Leap year? On the move

2012-03-10T15:33:00.000Z

Yes the leap year, I wandered into work for my first full day after the hols on the "8th" of March, however my casio watch was showing the 9th. So there I am taking bread off the shelves dated the 8th thinking how could all this have been missed by the code checker. Thats a check which highlights 2 days later that there might be items which should be reduced on that day.
It was only when I asked a colleague who had done the code check that by a process of strange looks and squinting at watches that I realised my cheapy casio could not have been programmed for the leap year!

On the move! our bakery Team Leader has been trying to join the cops for ages and at last he has been accepted he joins up on the 11th of April so we are in for a new team leader. Could be a bit of trial for the boss lady Tracy finding 1 as good.

The weather of late has been unseasonably mild and i always start thinking about going logging again in this type of situation. Might give it a go towards the end of the month.

Super Tuesday

2012-03-07T10:10:00.030Z

I watched yesterdays lunchtime news talking about the "Super Tuesday" candidates in the USA and had to laugh at the comments about Mitt Romney (can you believe that name!)

He it appears:
Is a billionaire (has made loads o cash off other people)
Is a Morman (believes what he reads in his own bible)
Is out of touch with the real people (and what are "real people", oh yes the ones that work and pay tax)

Perfect credentials for any politician I reckon.

Back to work after nearly 3 weeks off tomorrow, cant wait - - - - yeah!

Tom and Sainsbury hard at it this morning, mind you it is raining rather well outside

Sally's new vehicle, Cyril now has seats covers fitted and will be complete when he gets the paw print stickers applied this weekend.

Shed move complete

2012-03-05T10:16:00.000Z

We decided to keep Sally's beloved Boris the defender after finding out he appeared to be a bit of a collectors item. We had initially decided to sell him because of Sally's intention to move to part time work this year meant we didn't need 2 4x4s.
The problem of where to park him up after acquiring a 3rd vehicle (Cyril the Corsa combo van) was solved by deciding to move the shed from our parking area up into the garden.
This I completed with the help of a neighbour last Thursday & Friday. The challenge however was to shorten it from its original 10ft to just 6. It turned out to be a reasonably simple operation and with the help of a 3rd person we managed to carry the large end pieces up the garden and re erect it there.

This pic shows the shed with the roof off and before we shortened it.

This pic shows Boris backed into the gap left by the shed. The shed, (outlined) can be seen up in the garden, we intend to erect a trellis in front of it which will almost hide it when the summer foliage grows up it.

Back to reality

2012-03-01T06:25:00.001Z

After a fabulous holiday we left Kurumba in style as we arrived on one of their huge air conditioned speedboats.

We were flying Sri Lankanair and had to fly first to Colombo and then have an 11hr 45min flight back to Heathrow. The flight would have been fine except for a young child who would throw a one and half hour screaming tantrum sleep for an hour and then do it all again. Hey ho the price of paradise.

We stayed the night at Heathrow then drove home on Sunday in the sunshine. The cats were overjoyed to see us and ate everything we put down for them for an hour or two between bouts of prowling the garden scent marking everything in site - - - lovely!

Reporting for work on Wednesday was a joyous occasion as I only had to do a 2 hour shift! I remembered Tracey (she who Must! be obeyed) mentioning I had 6 hours left of my annual holidays and agreeing she could just put it on a day to suit.
Bless her cotton socks it was the Wednesday! after working 2 hours, and having part of that taken up by "fire training" I returned home.
I now have another week off in which to move the shed so we can park up Sally's beloved Boris the Defender while she uses the replacement a Corsa Combo van that has been named "Cyrel".
Please feel free to watch the dismantling and moving of the shed on our site at http://hakuraman.gotdns.com

Last day in paradise

2012-02-24T11:17:00.000Z

Last day here on Kurumba in the Maldives and what a lovley day, the weather has been great the whole holiday but today looks to be the best. Heres a pic of me preparing for our last snorkel this morning, fantastic sky!

We had decided to do a "macro" snorkel taking lots of pics of the smaller bits and bobs but it turned out to be a bit of a shark day

We also managed a few macro shots thing with the hole in the top is about half an inch wide at the base

These little fish (3" long) are quite amusing on a previous trip one came right up to look into the lense then when i had taken the picturte it came around to the viewfinder as if to look at the picture.

This is a titan trigger fish about 15" long 10" tall they can be quite agressive and this one made a lunge at me just after taking this pic, i managed to back off quick enough

Right well thats it a nice big dinner in the best resteraunt to night and we fly out early in thre morning

tangle of the titans?

2012-02-22T10:17:00.001Z

Sat here just after lunch listening to the rain on the greenhouse which houses the webcam back home.

Good snrokel this morning, the ocean was calm and no wind about so the water was super clear.

Just missed getting the whole of the tuna in this shot as i was just chasing the shark at the time. I thought they might have a go at each other but they just swam by.

Here are some tunahaving a go at a shoal of fish that have crowded into a ball as a defense mechanism

We were only saying at breakfast that we hadn't seen any Moray eels so far. You normally just see their heads poking out of holes in the coral. So it was unusual to see this fella toodling along out in the open, i got a good video, he was about 5ft long and a good 8 to 10" thick

Ooopps!

2012-02-20T13:05:00.000Z

Just missed stepping on this sting ray as we finished our morning snorkel today. Just a bit too close! Its about 3ft across and 5ft from nose to tail.

Nice little black tip reef shark below about 5ft long, it came up behind us and seemed to be using us a shield to get closer to a bunch of fish in front of us

Strange how!

2012-02-19T14:27:00.000Z

Its srtange how quickly you can get used to 3 glasses of champagne for breakfast! Part of the accommodation deal we are on gets you what they call a champagne breakfast in a place called the ocean grill.
At night its without doubt the best resteraunt on the resort with tables out in the open where you can watch the juvenile black tip reef sharks searching out their dinner in the shallow lagoon that borders the over water seating area.
For breakfast its a place where only the likes of the pool villa folks or anyone willing to shell out another $15 on top of the normal breakfast price get to eat. We met a guy we knew from our last visit who is in charge of the operation so get even more attention than normal to see that everything is going ok.
The weather is being kind because normally you do get the od rain shower and one was forecast for this afternoon but as yet, and its early evening now the skies are clear.
Snorkeling was good today as we were surprised by a 6ft black tip reef shark which came right up out of the deep and on to the house reef ledge we were swimming along. pic below

Must away to dinner at the Ming Court Chinese resteraunt!!!

Wow!

2012-02-18T03:48:00.002Z

First morning just sitting by our pool having a cuppa, before wandering off to the champagne breakfast!

Not a bad flight, but they are always as bit of a trial. Our flight was going onto Sri Lanka so only about 30 got off here. Quickly through immigration and customs and then onto our own boat to Kurumba (pic below)

Even though we have been to Kurumba twice before its still a thrill wandering around in the sunshine meeting up with old staff members that are still here and remeber you (or was it your tip?) and getting to know the new ones.

The guys who run the bar are mostly Sri Lankan and we mentioned having visited a couple of places there. It turns out one barman knows people back home that we do so thats a guarantee of extra special service.

Anyway onwards and upwards to the champagne breakfast!!

Holidays and things

2012-02-16T06:49:00.006Z

So here we are holiday day and we are both looking forward to our trip to the Maldives for 8 days of absolute luxury! I will post a few pics onto the link gallery page "Kurumba Maldives" and anyone I have an e mail address for will get a few!

I don't think Tom & Sainsbury the cats will enjoy their stay in Stallag Luft III down at the wonderful Stankirk kennels. When I came home from the shop yesterday old Tom looked as if he knew something was up as I didn't feed them as soon as I got home and he had spied the cases brought down from the loft in the morning. Sainsbury hates the cat carriers so he only twigged as I put him in his.

So Armed with fluffy toys special blankets and a huge packet of cat biscuits I deposited them there yesterday and came home to a very silent house, strange how you miss them right away!!

I was going to pack on Tuesday but my old website PC decided to close itself down, I think the problem is overheating so a new fan might be in order. Anyway I spent the whole of the afternoon swapping everything on to my little Chinese netbook (bought it in Hong Kong).

Everything worked fine as I struggled to remember some of the rules and settings except the weather machine software. It failed that evening, its updating the site but without updating the readings from the main machine. Its done it before and in fiddling to fix I broke it completely. I cant even get the software display to work now. So hence the new display on the website.

Onwards and upwards then off to pack and try not to set out too early for tonight's departure from Heathrow.

Knobs R Us!!

2012-02-13T15:57:00.001Z

Funny incident the other day in the shop. A bloke and his wife approached the customer service desk wanting to complain that a particular "Meal Deal" appeared not to have any items on sale. "I have a picture of the offer here on my phone" he says as he turns the phone to the customer service person. "I dont think thats the offer sir" he says looking at a picture of a blokes genetalia.

I think he should have said "that meat and 2 veg offer is finished sir". When the bloke realised what picture he'd shown it was red faces and he and his wife made a quick exit from the shop.

Snow! what Snow!

2012-02-10T16:37:00.004Z

We had been warned by the weather men and by the newspapers especially the Express to expect 8" of snow and it to be so cold grit wouldnt work? This was all meant to happen last night.

A point to note here though: These are the same weathermen who in 97 was it? Couldnt even see the mini hurricane plodding its way across the Atlantic which completely "surprised" us a few days later. And the same newspapers who had been predicting that it would be so cold last week 2000 people a day would die.

Anyway at work (the local sainsbugs) it was slightly akin to the day before Christmas Eve as people cleared the shelves and looked set to have enough food until Easter. This did wonders for the sales figures with a boost of +40k on the days target for takings. It does however make a pain in the ass for the supply chain as it cant react quickly enough, but hey ho. We had the usual wild eyed panic stricken few who seemed to think if they didn't get what they wanted the world would end. There were a few shouting matches but come on we were heading for Armageddon what could you expect!

Being a bit of a weather saddo with his own weather station in the back garden and on the website. I had been closely watching all the forecasts and came to the conclusion that we might not even get any snow. When I said this to a few customers they looked at me like I had just arrived form another planet.

To compound the panic after "the Managers meeting" we were asked if the dreaded snow did arrive as predicted would we be able to get into work today. Having the pick of 2 quality vehicles (Land Rovers) I answered in the affirmative.

It came to pass then that at around 1730 when we drove to the pub (Church Inn Darley Dale) for a "Pie and Peas Night" it was raining. By the time we had sampled said Pie and Peas, delicious I have to say by the way, there was just the odd soggy flake and I thought my amateur prediction might go down the pan. 3 J2O's later we emerged into more rain and made our way home.

To be fair it did snow but only about 1/8th of an inch rather than the 8" promised. When i went into the store this morning there was not a crumb let alone a loaf left on the shelves. I had left some rathere battered loaves on the shelves on the hope they would go and surely they did.

So it just go's to prove that if you tell people often enough that something is going to happen it can be complete crap but they will believe it!

Saga of the pond Heaters

2012-02-08T17:20:00.000Z

The recently ordered pond heater arrived yesterday and as it was predicted to be very cold last night I decided I would fit it even though it would be dark when my wife would bring it with her from work. Its more practical to have it delivered to her work than be hovering at home especially if an item has to be signed for.

In preparation I took out my multi tester to make sure the others were not dead because of fuses. It did dawn on me that maybe I should have done this earlier but I was so convinced they had failed after reading in the net that they only last a couple of seasons. Both are at least 3 years old.

They were both plugged into one of those adapters and that had a fuse, it tested ok. While I was testing it i plugged one of the heaters straight into the extension and it worked! changing one heater for the other only confirmed that they both worked! I tracked down the problem to the fact that the air pump bubble machine is on a timer that allows it to run for 15 minutes then off for 15 minutes. We've always had it like this because if they run all the time the bubbles cause so much wash you cant even see your fish.

The adapter had been up against the bubble machine timer and didn't allow the plug make a contact sufficient to get power to the rods. I couldn't see this as i have my filter box in a large polystyrene case to stop it freezing in winter and it hinders the opening of the plug box.

The upshot then is I spent £39 for nought. The one saving grace is that the new machine has a thermostat and only switches on when the temp go's below zero and off again as it rises above. The other type were on all the time if it was freezing or not. money saved in the long run? Hey ho!

Pics below shows old and new heaters with final pic showing new in pond. Final point why do pond pumps and accessories not come with fitted plugs but instructions to say they must be commissioned by a qualified electrician?!

Pond heaters and things

2012-02-07T10:17:00.000Z

I found out the other day that the "bermuda pond heaters" which have done such stirling work in the last 2 years keeping our pond clear of ice have both failed. About half the pond was frozen over with only a space under the little bridge and by both the bubble machine outlets free.
If you let the pond freeze there's a chance gasses which occur naturally can kill the fish. We had one freeze over a few years ago and the only casualties were the 34 frogs that had taken cover in it. Hopefully the replacement machine will arrive this afternoon and be immediately deployed!
After the upset of yesterday with poor Tesco i had to get out and have a walk so i took myself off to Ladybower Reservoir. Its a nice peaceful place and in contrast to the grey weather in our valley it was sunny and clear over there.
Here's a couple of the pics i took.

Oh dear

2012-02-06T12:37:00.000Z

A pretty ordinary day was blown apart by my next door neighbour asking me if all our cats were accounted for as he had seen one on the side of the road not far away.

I hadn't seen Tesco for about an hour and went to look. Sadly it was her, she had been struck on the side of her head and it looked as if her neck was broken. Thankfully she wasn't squashed and whoever hit her put her on the side of the road.

It was only yesterday that both kittens had first experienced snow so I will end here with the last pic I took of her and Sainsbury having rolled around in the snow yesterday.

Both covered in snow with Tesco on the left about to jump on her brother

Pussy's cleaned size no problem!

2012-02-04T14:55:00.000Z

Down at our local "The Church Inn" Darley Dale the new landlord has had an idea that if you put up a notice not many people will even notice it let alone read it.
If you put it on the TV in the corner people will notice it and read it. He advertises the weekend carvery and up and coming events. I was amused therefore to see a reference to our unfortunate incident when Sainbury the kitten decided to investigate the inside of our Beko washing machine and was locked in for a bit of a rinse!

Fame at last!!!!!

Cold up on Curber today

2012-02-02T14:53:00.002Z

We are fortunate to live in the bottom end of the Peak District just South of Chatsworth House. One of the main walking areas are whats known as the edges just to the North of Chatsworth.
These edges are like rocky ledges that look down into the valleys and are at about 1000ft altitude whereas the valley bottoms can be as low as 100ft.
It was very sunny this morning so I decided that once I had done a bit if book work I would go for a walk on Curber edge. As soon as I set out the clouds descended and it was quite grey up there as can be seen from the 2 pics below. Depending how the weekend weather pans out I might go up onto Kinder on Monday and get a few snowy pics.

Kitts one week on

2012-01-31T13:47:00.000Z

It was only a week ago our kittens Tesco & Sainsbury were "done" and they are back to their normal lunatic running around selves . The stitches ripped out by Tesco caused a little concern but there seems no harm done. Little Sainsbury (the lad) didnt seem to be slowed down at all and has been happy as larry since getting back home. He seemed more upset at being in the cat box than anything else, trying the whole time to claw his way out whilst crying the whole trip there and back!

Nuts missing!

2012-01-24T10:02:00.001Z

Well doesn't time fly when you are enjoying yourself! It seems only a couple of months ago that we were staring down at the bundles of fluff dwarfed by Tom our old cat. It was however time yesterday for them to "be done".

Sainsbury being the boy was castrated, ok all the men reading this wince and a have short intake of breath. The vet (a girlie) said, "its not a serious operation", at which I looked at her and said "well no not for you!".

Tesco however had to be speyed which just like the modern hysterectomy is an everyday op nowadays but is more "invasive" as the vet put it.
She came home obviously in pain crying when she moved but by the end of the evening seemed to have settled down ok. She managed to remove one of the stitches overnight in spite of wearing one of those collars but the wound looks to be intact so we are leaving it for now.

Pic above is Tesco trying to get her breakfast with the collar on.

Dentist for me in a mo, is there no end to the joy!

Oh yes the Title "Nuts Missing" (steady now!) here's our resident pesky critter stealing our peanuts and fat balls (quiet now)

Low wit today!

2012-01-22T07:51:00.005Z

Isn't sarcasm "the lowest form of wit?" or so its said, well here's a bit from me.
Its not that I'm following the American Presidential Election but we do seem to be getting "their headlines" quite a lot on the sky news website. It was with great mirth (little things do amuse little minds don't they!) I noticed that a candidate by the odd name of, "Mitt Romney", had won one of their primary elections. Today the headlines are ringing with the news that "Mitt Romney" has been beaten by, a "Newt Gingrich" in a South Carolina primary!

However, the final word (prize) today in sacrcasm has to go to the owners of the "Concordia" , the ship lying on its side in the Med.

From the Sunday Telegraph - The owners of the Costa Concordia are offering survivors of the disaster a 30 per cent discount off future cruises as they battle to stave off law suits expected to cost hundreds of millions of pounds.

I think "INSULT to injury and harrowing ordeal" fits neatly in to place here!
Anyway, back to reality we are booked in for a carvery at "The Church" today http://fancyapint.com/Pub/darley-dale/church-inn/31245 so I had better get out for a walk, dont want to be shooting up past 12stone again.
I did say sarcasm was the lowest form of wit didnt I!?

Is it me? - - again

2012-01-20T10:17:00.003Z

I had an e mail recently from our friend Sharon in Canada. It contained a cutting from an American newspaper.

A robber was fleeing the shop he had just held up and ran into a group of 4 Marines (in uniform) who were out doing some charity collecting. The robber bumps into and knocks one of the Marines into the road and he injures his arm. The shop owner comes out and indicates that, "this man is a robber". The four Marines set about the robber who in "falling off the kerb into the street" sustains a broken leg, arm and ribs he also has 2 black eyes and multiple bruises. The police arrive and after giving first aid to the Marine who fell into the road cart off the robber who eventually gets sent to jail. Fair do's maybe health and safety should look at the height of the kerb but, there you go - - - result? Yes.

I recently saw on You-tube a video of a train conductor being verbally abused by a, "young man" on a train. You can hear the, "young man" indicating that he is not getting off the train but he has no ticket and is not willing to pay. This go's on for a short while. A large gentleman appears in the video and pulls the "young man" from his seat and without a word ejects said man from train and stops him getting back on until the doors close. Hearty applause from the onlookers as the large gentleman sits down and the train trundles on - end of video. I read in the newspaper 2 days later that the "Large gentleman" is being charged for assault by the police who are using the You Tube video as the evidence. - - - result? I don't think so or, "is it just me?"

Lights out! - - Again!

2012-01-17T07:10:00.001Z

Just sitting around watching a bit of TV on Sunday when the power went off, a few minutes later it came on again and we thought nothing of it. About an hour later a van parks in the terrace driveway and a number of people start digging a hole just at the left hand side of the drive way on the pavement.

The following morning it emerged that the power cut was the cause of the digging but apart from a hole left in the pavement that looked to be the end of it. Alas no!

0100 Tuesday morning! a number of trucks arrived and disgorged digging machines, traffic lights and barriers along a with a merry band of diggers! 0136 the power went off i noticed the time as my website went down and this is the last time the still pics had the time for.

What seemed like hours later! well it would when you are lying there listening to machines all night it went a bit quiet and, yes you guessed it the alarm went off.

Always being one "whom is prepared", I have a head torch by the bed mind you upstairs I didn't need this as I had an incandescent wife to light my way down the stairs!

Downstairs the kittens have also become a little blase about watching the the workmen through the window but dont seem to mind having their breakfast by candlelight. I make my way to the shed and recover the camping stove already primed and ready to go. Its that cold -4.9c that the auto lighter doesn't work but we have lots of the old "10 lighters for a pound" from the car boot sale and a cup of tea is steaming in no time at all.

Its time to go to work and with the log burner blasting out heat and light as I collect my bits and bobs together the power comes back on.

And so to work leaving the incandescent wife furiously penning an e mail complaint and signing it "Grumpy of Grafton Terrace".

As I negotiate the bottom of the drive which by now is an assault course of barriers and health and safety signs I notice the contractors have gone, no doubt to have a hearty well cooked breakfast (by electricity of course) and count their well earned bonus for such a "good nights" work

My Boss Tracey is Great!

2012-01-12T16:21:00.001Z

My Boss Tracy is great, well especially as she has signed off my holiday requests for the next 12 months.

Bit of drama at the shop I noticed one of the girls from the cafe looked a bit down in the mouth, seems her boyfriend dumped her by text and then she saw him out with another girl. Young love hey!

On arriving home not long ago my next door neighbour John greeted me with, "Do you like my new kitchen?". In his workshop garage was a pile of used kitchen units he had picked up form outside a house just up the road. I reckon it will join the other started but unfinished projects he has running. The garden bottom terrace into a courtyard with conservatory, the top terrace into a veg patch. The part erected greenhouse that has now almost fallen down. - - - I advised him to use it for firewood!

The very mild weather we have been having looks to be coming to an end as its quite chilly just now and wih the clear sky this evening I think we might see some frost tonight.

I still think my boss is great!

New Van and Whale sharks!

2012-01-11T14:06:00.000Z

New Van

I had spoken to my friend who has a couple ex fleet vans for sale last Sunday and today managed to go to up to his place this morning and take 1 for a drive. I took it down to Sainsbugs to do a little shopping and the place promptly had a power cut. The last one cost the shop £60k but thankfully the power was only off for 20 minutes or so

So here we are the New Van, we are in a situation where we will not need it until the end of Feb so its housed temporarily in our friends complex undercover.

Whale Sharks

I was looking through the various news sites this morning and came across a number of incredible pics of fishermen in the Philippines hand feeding whale sharks. We have yet to see whale sharks in our trips to the Maldives, maybe on our next one in 5 weeks time!

Follow this link to see the pics

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/9002157/Whale-sharks-feeding-from-the-hands-of-fishermen-in-the-Philippines.html

Bought a van down the pub!

2012-01-10T06:53:00.000Z

Not as mad it might sound actually. A good friend of ours buys ex fleet vans and sells them on. He mentioned before Christmas that he was going to have some vans soon and finally told me had them Sunday down at the pub in "Salon Rustique". (see previous blog entry)
With Sally expressing an intention to maybe go part time locally before the end of the year we decided it would make sense to sell one of our 4x4s. Another spin off from her intention was to cancel the Australia trip we had planned for October.
I then came up with the idea of selling her beloved "Boris" the defender to finance some of the holiday. a little reluctantly she agreed. So that's where the van idea came from, and to Australia we shall go!
When I mentioned the "Boris" selling Lisa (cutting hair in Salon Rustique) had said we should store "him" as the TD5 version is not made any longer and the new defender looks just like any other 4x4.
I did a bit of research on the net yesterday and his current value is astonishing, so it looks as if we will be taking her advice.
Where to store "him" is another challenge, our friend with the vans mentioned we could store him at his complex but generous as the offer is I would rather have "him" here. So watch this space on the still webcam in summertime for some kind of carport!

SALLY DRIVING HER BELOVED "BORIS"
I get to drive him now and again and you can see its a bit of a cult vehicle already as other Defender drivers wave at you - - - makes me cringe and pretend not to notice them!!

Salon Rustique!

2012-01-09T07:49:00.000Z

I'm sure I have mentioned before that our local pub The Church Inn Darley Dale, has this quirky custom of letting our friend Lisa cut peoples hair on the first Sunday of every month. Since the new owners introduced dining in the pub Lisa had been cutting in the yard at the back of the pub.

As its now quite cool she has set up in what used to be a stable in the old days. So here's a pic of Lisa cutting yesterday in what i christened "Salon Rustique"

Wake up call & decks down

2012-01-06T06:32:00.003Z

Ok I don't normally do the political monster on here as I firmly do not believe even 1/10th of the stuff that appears in the papers. I also think politicians only tell us what they want us to know. Hang on hang on is this coming from the bloke who said one of his new year resolutions was to be less cynical? Yes it is

The Independent this morning has a headline "Obama: The US can no longer fight the worlds battles". It will come as no surprise to most people that "the world" would probably be better off if the US kept its nose out of anyone else's business. This also go's for our dear Mr Cameron, we are soon to pull out of Afghanistan after achieving what? filling in a load of american bomb holes to rebuild villages and placating a lot of locals that we are killing them for "their own good".

Ok burying my head in the sand? I don't think so, the ploitical shenanigans that go on to get the troops into these situations have meant they are fighting with one arm tied behind their backs. Why don't we "muck out" our own pig sty first before we go and shit in someone else's?

That said, the windy weather of yesterday looks to have eased a little even though a pretty cool at 1.9c just now
I managed to get stuck into a little "book" work yesterday and even kicked around a few designs for the cover. I'm using both Kindle and Booksmart to publish the book so need to be aware of the limitations of both rather than having just the one plan. I might even put up a separate "book" page on the website to see if it generates any comment!
Another plus from yesterday was my old Friend "Bulmer" from the Hereford days had agreed to come on the Welsh 15 Peaks Challenge. So its 2 "old guys" to be helped along!
And so too today, the Christmas decorations have to come down, its great to get them up and the 2 new kittens have had a ball snatching down baubles, strangely just the red ones, from the trees and racing around the cottage with them. Its also great to get them down and cleared away, it kind of lets you know the year has really started and you should "get your finger out"

So onwards and upwards

Same again thank you

2012-01-05T09:45:00.003Z

A very stormy night, lots of wind and a fair bit of rain with reports of trees down locally

Wind and rain!

2012-01-03T06:33:00.001Z

Quite a stormy night from the weather point of view. I'm on a day off today after a fairly typical Monday at the shop apart from opening at 0900, the usual number of shoppers "Challenges" to deal with.

I will post a pic or 2 later as I'm off for a walk as soon as the light is good enough and intend this morning to do an hour on "the book". Lets hope i dont fall prey to the "road to good intentions etc"

Sally's first day back at work today but she has been struck down by the dreaded flu bug and has been pked off back to bed.
More later

Still a bit wet and windy now, here's a couple of pics from the walk

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T08:08:00.000Z

So here we are then 2012, with the usual celebrations around the world to usher in the new year. I watched the firework display on the net in Sydney and the bridge as always makes a perfect backdrop. The London display I think did look better though.

Outside just now the birds are singing, you can just hear them on the webcam mic and it looks like its going to be a nice day.

New Year resolutions? be more positive, get my finger out with "the book" and not be such a cynic!!

First thing on the horizon is our trip to the Maldives in Feb then there's the Welsh 15 in June, I wonder what other "unplanned" events will come along to spice up the year.

Anyway onwards and upwards Happy New Year.

Wet & Windy back to work

2011-12-29T18:30:00.000Z

Back at the fun factory after the Christmas break and still lots of Christmas bits of stock around. Customers seem confused at some of the empty shelves but this is as a result of a lot of stock being written off after last Christmas.

Most people seem to have survived the period quite well.

I managed to convince my old friend "Bulmer" from my Hereford days that the 15 Peaks event in June would be good for him and his wife approves so it will be good to hook up with him for the walk. Hopefully "the girls" will approve and it will mean we keep our exclusive group together.

We had a lovely walk in the windy sunshine yesterday up near the millstones pub at Hathersage. The pic was taken down near the river and the view still has an autumnal look about it.

Onwards to the new year

Boxing day hunt

2011-12-27T07:13:00.001Z

We attended the gathering of the Bakewell Hunt at the agricultural centre yesterday. Normally its in the town centre but I think they changed it due to the sales being on. Being "in the country", there is quite a lot of support around here for the hunt. One of the joint hunt-masters in his speech before setting off mentioned the hope of a change in the law to allow hunting with dogs again. I wonder if it will ever happen?

Phew made it!

2011-12-25T21:26:00.002Z

Right that's it Christmas is over with for another year along with the promise of not spending as much next year. I had an idea that maybe to cut down on the cost and the blatant commercialism we might only observe Christmas every other year. This brought frowns and reverse smiles so I guess that's not a good idea.

We had a quiet start with a light breakfast then opened the presents, most unusual I got was a 3D webcam! that will doubtless provide hours of entertainment. Sally was so enamoured with the birthday T towels I repeated the gift today and it went down "just as well as it did last time".

The local pubs only open for a couple of hours so we visited The Church and The Square & Compass before trudging back home up the old railway line footpath.

Tomorrow being boxing day the local hunt will be leaving Bakewell town centre and as usual we shall attend. Here's hoping the "fluffy bunny brigade" keep a low profile.

And finally, our little girlie kitten, Tesco, has taken to collecting earth worms from the garden and dropping them on the kitchen floor? Very strange but it beats dead mice I suppose

Bah Hamburg

2011-12-21T16:41:00.001Z

Lots of "Happy" Christmas shoppers in the old shop today with maybe a little more frenzied application than normal. Quite funny this morning getting ready for work I only realised at 6:45 that I should have been in at 06:30. No-one seemed to notice but it just meant I had to work until 3.00pm rather than 2.30 if I had been on time.

Quote of the day has to go to a bloke in the warehouse who noticed that one of the girls was wearing a Bah Humbug hat and said, "Why has Rachael got Bah Hamburg on her hat!"

Winter Soltice tomorrow at 0530 so thankfully it will be getting lighter each day from now on!!!!!!

Christmas shopping frenzy!

2011-12-18T17:12:00.000Z

The Christmas shopping frenzy has begun. Its the time when people in the shop react to the crowd around them by panicking! Its as if they imagine there's not going to be enough to go around or if they don't run around like chickens with their heads cut off they will never complete their shop!!

Silliest request of the day was "do you sell solder?"

We are way down on the target for last weeks sales so if you are going to shop in Matlock Sainsbugs this week don't expect to get out through the doors unless you spend at least £150!!

laptop RIP

2011-12-13T16:26:00.000Z

One of the laptops I use for our website has finally given up the ghost. It was the one which supplied the still and webcam stream from the old greenhouse at the top of the garden. I have been getting messages for ages that its been overheating and should be shut down but this morning it stopped itself.
I have managed to replace it with a "box" from an old desktop tower machine. Everything is fine except I cant get the sound to play from the webcam. The microphone on the camera is picking up the noise but its not transmitting it with the broadcast picture.
It will no doubt be something simple but at this moment in time I cant fathom it.

Book prep!! Book what book.

2011-12-12T11:27:00.000Z

The e mails have been zinging between myself and 2 ex SAS friends in the past week. To maintain the SAS myth and mystery though I shall not name them except to give them codenames. One lives in Spain so he shall be "Manuel" the other lives in Hereford so he shall be "Bulmer".

I have been asking various questions about events that have popped up in our communications and wanting their "take" on dates and times and tales. Manuel sent me his version of the mounting of one operation and I was in tears of laughter trying to read his mail to Sally. Bulmer on the other hand brings a note of seriousness to the table.

Its strange that I just remember the various people we talk about, "as they were", full of tough determined complete professional get up and go!. To hear from Bulmer that one has terrible arthritis and can hardly walk, another has Alzheimers and doesn't recognise him and a third talks and moves really slowly is reality hitting home.

The 3 of us can count ourselves lucky that any "scars" we might have dont show!

I really must get started on this damn book!

Monday Monday

2011-12-12T11:03:00.003Z

Sainsbury's (the kitten) brush with the washing machine seems not to have had any lasting effects on him. I cant set the thing going without checking the inside at least twice now though!!

Quite a busy weekend with finishing off the Christmas decks on Saturday then a walk down to the pub for a couple in the afternoon. An unusual, well no, downright unusual sight struck me on the way back from the pub. Sally had not taken off her jacket in the pub so obviously didn't feel the benefit of having done so when we emerged into the cold and windy afternoon to walk home.
So there we were walking along with her saying how cold her back was, she then broke into a run!! Anyone who knows Sally will tell you that this is totally unheard of as she is opposed to any form of exercise. I could not unfortunately get at my camera as she was hanging onto my shooting arm. So alas, this unusual occurrence has not been recorded.

Sunday we had Kevin & Karen over from Worksop and visited Haddon Hall not Chatsworth as I had earlier recorded. It was a nice visit although the weather was absolutely foul.

Highlight of the visit was to see Ruth Goodman from the BBC TV series about living in the Victorian Era. I saw her as soon as we entered the great hall and thought, "I know her from somewhere?", thinking that she worked on the checkouts at sainsbugs! Shes the one in the pic with the white headscarf to the right of the bloke with the mustard pantaloons!,

Sainsbury the cat has a rinse!

2011-12-08T09:16:00.000Z

I popped a couple of towels into the washer left the door open and went upstairs to get the rest of the towels, threw them in slammed the door and set it going.
A couple of minutes later I could hear this howl. like 2 cats when they are squaring up to each other for a fight.
There's been a couple of fully grown cats chasing our kittens so I thought it might be that and went outside to investigate. No cats, sat back down again to hear the howl again, switched off the radio and heard the howl again, From inside the washing machine!

Frantic and I mean frantic long minutes later we get him out without injury but obviously soaked and very very, well clean.

The look says it all "get me the F outa this thing"

Not too keen on the rinse aid!

The corporate spectre is abroad!

2011-12-08T08:00:00.001Z

Whew!, survived another week at the fun factory on the way to Christmas. Dont get me wrong I like the spirit of Christmas but you have to admit 99% of it is designed to part us from our hard earned cash.

Talking of cash, "a survey has revealed", this was on Radio2 news yesterday, that, "there will be X thousands of people who will take out a short term high interest loan in the next 6 months". The newsreader then followed it by saying, "the survey also revealed that there are an increasing number of people who are concerned at their level of personal debt". Come on!

Anyway I digress, back to the "corporate spectre" at Sainsbugs, a notice appeared that there would be a "Colleague Christmas fayre tasting on the 4th of December at 1600 in the store cafe". The reason, there needs to be one? was the help that colleagues gave to the store during the 2 recent power outages. Now stop me if I'm a cynic, OK OK! I am but hey we were at work the power go's off we carry on working?

I did think though that it was a fine gesture and made a note to attend as it would be "on" 1 second after the end of my shift that day. About 1545 I saw one of the trainers going round the store filling a trolley with goodies, but wait! they were by and large the "basic" range of goodies. Putting this aside I finished my shift and collected the usual bits and bobs on our shopping list, so its 1615 as I'm coming up to the open entrance to the store cafe.

I pause and scan the faces of the people there, they are not stuffing their faces with Christmas fayre they are sitting there like people with the pox in a doctors waiting room. I notice colleagues I definately do not want to share the free fayre with. I also notice that the "organisers" are still "organising", a full 15 minutes after the scheduled "start" of the event. Still "paused", I sweep the room once again staring into their "eager" pale faces, wave weakly to the assembled throng and leave thinking, is it me?

I muse on the Sainsbugs corporate spectre, dont get me wrong I enjoy the old job its simple you meet interesting people, both collegues and customers. There needs to b a strong corporate grip on a company that big with so many outlets ( Thinks my old company Remploy could have done with the same stranglehold!). But being as old and cranky as I am it does some across as a, "hoary old chestnut"

Finally, we were given the Ho Ho Ho Father Christmas hats which "You must wear" yesterday. Mine was dirty, having make up on the inside, i wondered if it had been male of female who had been wearing it last!

Finally finally, P. S the sales target for the last week before Christmas is £1.1 million so get your hat on and your arse in gear Michael its going to be a bumpy ride!!!

Back to the fun factory

2011-11-30T15:41:00.002Z

Back in work for a week tomorrow as we trip our way into December!!! I was just looking at last years weather data and noticed that on the 1st of December we awoke to this!

We then had a number of days where it was below 0c and a minimum of minus 14.9 on the 7th of December.

With that in mind I deployed the heater rods into the pond because we don't want to get caught out with the pond freezing over. One of our smaller ponds froze solid in 2009 and I fished out 34 frogs come the thaw! Even though they can stay underwater for ages the need now and again to take a breath, poor old frogs.

I finished at last all the scanning of documents and photographs for the book and have a total of 766 items but don't suppose more than 10 or 12% will make it into the book. I might pop them all onto picassa web albumns and point people at them in the book.

Now that rather mammoth task is complete I have no excuses left not to start the thing so might try the introduction and first few pages next week.

Book what book!!!

2011-11-26T07:47:00.002Z

I have spent a considerable amount of time this week scanning photos & documents in an attempt to get everything catalogued before I even think about book content but its starting to raise its head so to speak.
Funny thing with the photo's even though the events I have been scanning were back in the 70's I can remember 99.9% of them. The problem I have is "when" as in year/date were they took. The odd one I had scribbled the date on or something in the view is dated but for the most part I'm going to have to do some research of the well documented bits and bobs.
I don't suppose the reader will be looking for historical accuracy but it makes sense to get dates for significant events correct.
I'm wrestling with "how" I should write it. Any tales I relate to people are normally the amusing ones and it would be easy to make light of the whole book, however there are a number of "deadly" serious bits that need to be told and its how to fit these in. More thought on this is I think! ?
Paul a colleague at Sainsbugs is fascinated with the little snippets I feed him and wonders why I have not put pen to paper earlier. I'm putting up pics on facebook with stories and if his reaction is anything to go by the book should be an interesting read.
I still think my time in the forces was "just what I did" back then. I don't get this enormous feeling of "pride" that many ex soldiers seem to have. Wearing their medals and berets at various events, I just cant bring myself to attend any of the "reunions"? I realise my time in the Army helped hone me into the cynical old fart that I am now but I think I have always been a "half empty" viewer of the glass and wonder if that's why I'm still here!!!

To end this rambling let me put up a photo that I particularly remember the details of. Its a black and white from the Oman when I was in the SAS. We were searching a small part of the Wadi Naheez which is an absolutely huge wadi that you notice right away when you step off the plane at Salalah. We had realised that it was "almost" certain no adoo were there but the ever present booby traps could still be in the caves we were looking at. The look on my face says it all. Scary, serious, exiting and what the F are you doing taking pictures for now!

A short week!

2011-11-26T07:07:00.001Z

Having had my unexpected 3 days off as catalogued in my DOH!!! post of the 17th Nov the last working week was a short 3 days. The growing list of Christmas lines helps remind shoppers that they are in for a prolonged period of "conditioning to buy" before the big day!!
On the "days off" scene the water repair men continued to rip up the road and generally get in the way. This was tempered when a workman knocked on the door Thursday to tell me "you'll be fine now we've finished your bit".
This i took to be the apology the Severn Trent help desk mentioned when i phoned them 2 days earlier about the water going off when it hadn't been scheduled to.

Secure in this knowledge i decided to go shopping only to find 2 vans parked either side of our exit blocking the view out. I did however get a jolly wave from one of the drivers. On returning from shopping one vehilce had gone but the other was now blocking the drive entirely. The driver however was in the van and moved it" I gave him "a jolly wave!" of gratitude.

Is it me?

2011-11-22T09:12:00.002Z

You know what its like the water company or lets point the finger directly here the contractors "Enterprise" are digging up the road outside your house. They put up temporary traffic lights that you cant see either end of and when you pull put to go somewhere its a better than even chance your going to meet the moron from Mars coming the other way who would rather re-arrange your teeth than listen to your explanation!

Bless their "Contractors" cotton socks though they do put a postcard through the door explaining what day and when they are cutting off the water. This obviously lets you "prepare" by filling pans etc to get you through the "dry period"

"You know whats coming dont you!?" They then switch the B water off at 8am on a day when they are not scheduled to. Sally in shower does not appreciate my suggestion of dipping her head in the rain barrel by the shed to rinse out the soap. Soooo ungrateful! "you could use the T towels I bought you for your birthday", i joke - - - - she doesn't see the joke! Once out of shower and using some cold water we bottled previously to "rinse". The water is switched back on although it has the colour of the Ganges in full flood!!!

Is it me?

Lots of visitors to our website through camstreams.com

2011-11-20T20:43:00.003Z

Each evening I look at the Apache access log on the webserver to see where visitors are looking at our site from .
I noticed this evening that there seemed to be quite a few visitors and i guess they are mostly coming from the recently revived link on Camsreams.com where our streaming webcam is hosted.

I dropped the access file into XL and removed all my refreshes and duplicates of visitor IP addresses and the visitor count between 0001 and 2000hrs today was 489! I used an IP locator on the net on 10 IP's from the list and the results are as follows. UKx2, Australia, Germany, Russia, China, Greece, Canada, USA & Italy. Nice to know we are "being seen around the world"

A case of identity!

2011-11-18T07:36:00.001Z

You know what its like, standing there jostling with the other passengers looking for your case coming around the carousel at the airport?
Ok going on holiday its not so bad but coming back you have just endured 11 or so hours on a plane and you just want to get home. Your cases look just like all the others, in fact, "hasn't that strange looking bloke just taken one of ours?!"

So with the holidays looming, at last at last! we decided to get some new cases. As well as them being the biggest I could find I went for a bright colour. Pink, puce call it what you like but I still had "a cunning plan" for better identification.

Both our vehicles have the Wolfskin paw stickers on and I had one large one left over that's been kicking around for ages. I made a stencil out of it and splodged a few paw prints on each one!

Easy to spot or what!!!!

Top terrace modifications

2011-11-18T06:57:00.000Z

Sometime ago we had looked at some old photographs of our top (sun) terrace and decided it looked better without the Plum tree we planted and Pergola we erected years ago.

Removing the plum tree was simple and will provide a bit of wood for the log burner once it dries out. The pergola is used for our swinging seat which we use quite a lot throughout the year so we decided to chop it in half. This we hoped would give us the best of both worlds. An open area on the terrace as well as being able to continue to use the seat.

So for the last couple of days that has kept me busy. One of the hidden benefits has been a dramatic effect on our webcam photos. Removing the pergola from in front of the cameras has given us a wonderful view across the valley.

This shows the terrace "before" with the plum tree back right and the pergola covering 4/5ths of the terrace.

This is the after shot with the plum tree and half the pergola removed.
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.This is a shot of the birdcam before the removal of the pergola on the viewing side of the terrace
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This was the view yesterday just as the sun dipped below the other side of the valley

Pics from the black lagoon/Kevins hot tub

2011-11-17T07:47:00.000Z

Definitely and experience not to be missed when we visited Kevin & Karen at the weekend. There are 4 seats in the thing each with a different set of jets that can be set from gentle to "pummel and drown the occupant".

Doh!!!!!!!!!!

2011-11-17T07:38:00.000Z

I have just been into work when I'm meant to be on days off!!!!! . lol In fact I have 3 days off so I shall take full advantage of them and finish the top terrace modifications pack the new page "old Gallery" on the website with pics and do a bit of work on the book.

No water! - - - website work!

2011-11-15T10:09:00.000Z

The water people Severn Trent are a curse on the neighbourhood at present replacing worn out mains and have been threatening to switch of the water in the past few days. The first couple of times you fill up the bath for loo flushing and pans for cooking. So typically they don't turn it off.
Today I just filled a couple of pans before it dried up!!

I had a good go at the website yesterday trying to make it look a little more attractive. I had spent 2 hours on the gallery page http://hakuraman.gotdns.com/gallery.html when my free wysiwyg website (Blue Voda) builder crashed and I lost the lot. Thinks? why cant they have an auto save like XL? Anyway I digress, so I downloaded an app with a 30 day free use option. WYSIWYG Web Builder 7, Its as near as damn it a copy of Blue voda although I guess its the other way round. The only upside is that it saves pages as .html where BV has its own extension because your meant to upload to their servers where on the way the extensions get changed to html.

I persevered in the end, saving the page everytime added something so will be sticking with BV. The site looks fine in IE but in Google Chrome the background to the pages doesnt look long enough unless you "zoom out" on the page. I looked on the net and there is a solution that I will try on my next week off.

I must, must, must get my head around this html code jiggery pokery, so will do an online course starting this afternoon! honest Paul.

Is It Me?

2011-11-15T09:37:00.001Z

I bought my wife a pack of T Towels for her birthday, well they were on special offer! She seems a little miffed? I will never understand woman!

Website development and Budgie smugglers

2011-11-13T06:56:00.003Z

I made some time yesterday to re-arrange the website a bit. Still the same format for the home page but a bit more unorthadox I guess you could call it.

I have put the XP5 webcam on its own page and will add another to link up with camstreams. The XP5 one is far clearer than the camstreams picture but I will play around with the camstreams broadcast options once its in place to improve the output. This is mainly to try and get a few visitors as the camstreams home page shows your webcam and is quite well patronised. http://www.camstreams.com/

The Gallery wants re-doing and I'm into that but having second thoughts. What I need is a Gallery of "past pics" to show a bit of history or any significant events e.g. the snow the flood etc, then a page where i can just drop pics in. Kind of a dynamic gallery. Bits could just be dropped in and then shuffled off into the Gallery if they warrant it.

Budgie smugglers! well not exactly. We are off to visit Kevin & Karen a couple of friends from the Army days and Kevin has this enormous Hot Tub in the back garden and I am going to give it a go today. Pics later.!

Website bits and bobs

2011-11-11T16:55:00.000Z

Now that I'm firmly embedded with the sky broadband I'm into upgrading our little website. With W3Z I couldn't afford the bandwidth to run animations and decent webcams streaming. With sky I'm getting 13664 Kbps downstream and 804 Kbps upstream so in the next few weeks I will be trying a few more bits and bobs and adding additional pages.

I'm being urged by Paul form work to have a go with "Wordpress" and it looks quite good at first glance. The only problem I have is I'm a GUI man not a code man. I will give it a go once I have mastered the html jiggery pokery which I'm hoping to start in late December.

I had a bit of trouble to begin with getting the port forwarding working in the sky router. This is the bit that allows surfers to actually see the site and streaming webcams etc. I tried the camstreams encoder this afternoon and it worked first go. I'm reluctant to abandon my webcam XP5 so might even get another just for camstreams. It just lets me get the odd visitor from their website display of the webcams.

Tesco meets Mr Nastyface!

2011-11-11T16:41:00.000Z

A very grey day but at least I managed to get the new porch frame painted to some degree, I'm using a wood stain and it needs a couple of coats so it will be a case of how many before i find it tedious and give up.

Anyway sloshing away with the old brush and there's a heck of a squeal from near the shed so I step down from the ladder and see the large Tabby, christened Mr Nastyface having a go at little Tesco. Luckily for her she was near to or already under the shed and the attacker couldn't get at her.

I make a lot of noise and chase him up and out of the garden and go back to the shed. By this time Sainsbury has arrived on the scene but does not appear to know whether to run in or look for trouble. I save him the bother by scooping him up and showing him where Tesco is hiding. He cautiously edges forward with her growling at him until they both recognise each other. They both then retire swiftly to the kitchen and recover from the ordeal with a biscuit or 2.

The rest of the day passes quietly having shopped and gone over to Chestefield to pick up yet more bits for Sally's Defender to enable us to fit the replacement headlights. As usual you think its just going to be a case of old light out new light in. Once you get into the job other bits a rusting away the clip need replacing that hold the light to the unit. So what was 2 lights at £62 becomes 2 more bits and sets of clips at another £63. Still it doea help if you can see where you are going and the present lights are past their sell by date!

Sainsbury gets blooded!

2011-11-09T17:31:00.000Z

The 2 kittens were racing around the garden as usual this afternoon when there was an almighty squeal. Tesco (the girlie) raced in and hid behind the curtains. I looked for Sainsbury and saw another large tabby who patrols our garden now and again legging it. Sainsbury appeared with a tail like a bottle brush and obviously a little peeved. I noticed a few minutes later he had a small wound on his nose and near his eye.

No doubt there will be further confrontations between these 2.

Earlier in the day I had lit the log burner and all of a sudden Tesco had disappeared. After a couple of minutes i spotted her down the side of the log burner sat on the small pile of wood. So the title of the pic below is "When I said "a seat CLOSE to the log burner I mean CLOSE"

Days off at last

2011-11-09T05:57:00.000Z

Having worked the last 6 days straight off I now get 8 days off which is a nice thought.
Work yesterday finished ok with what we call the tops being put on the isle. This means that the full range of Christmas puds and associated paraphanalia will now be flooding in. The more grumpy element of our clientel are expressing their disgust that we already have so many Christmas items around already. I normally counter this by telling them the Easter eggs are out in the warehouse!

I have tried for years, yes years to get myself some checkout training as I cant see me having the energy to do the bread job forever. During a training session yesterday Bev the trainer mentioned that some staff checkout training was scheduled soon. In talking to my boss Tracy she managed as usual to feed me a confusing diatribe of drivel about hours and when and how it could be completed. So thats it then I get the checkout training when "the moons a balloon and in its 5th quarter". All a bit of a joke really but Its something that must surely be on the horizon.

So today lots of things to map out for the days ahead, a trip over to Chesterfield for a couple of DIY bits and a trip to the Lanrover Dealer to pick up a headlight for Sally's beloved "Boris" the Defender. We bought some high intensity halogen bulbs but the lenses are a little past it to let all the light through.

You know the thing its a 40 minute job if all the screws aren't rusted solid and the spring slips don't break. So I will experiment with 1 unit to discover all the gremlins.

To horse! the day is upon us!

Kittens turn to killers!

2011-11-06T17:28:00.000Z

It had to happen but I didn't think they would get a bird so early. Sally thinks it was Tesco (the girlie) who actually nabbed the green finch. As cats do she then had to bring it down to the house to show off "the spoils". Sainsbury then joined in and was growled at for his impudence!

A nice pleasant day at the store quite busy but not manic. We will soon get the Christmas feel to the store and the final 10 days before Christmas when the shoppers seem to take on a Jekyl and Hyde persona!

Sally had some good news yesterday, after her brush with cancer last year. She was called for a mammogram last week and told it would be 2 weeks before she got the result. The all clear came early yesterday so she was relieved to say the least.

Rainy Friday

2011-11-04T17:36:00.001Z

Quite a bit of rain this morning so lots of shoppers smelling like dogs when they get wet although some seem to be like that all the time!
A brisk morning on the bread was tempered by me being given the new girl from the bakery Lucy. A pleasant girl quite well spoken, well when you come from Leigh like wot I do most other people seem well spoken. We however rubbed along quite well and managed to keep the bread and cakes in tact so to speak.
We are relaibly informed that the MAC lady will be in tomorrow. This is a person who will come in "unannounced" and check items which we are meant to have in stock all the time and scan the odd gap to check if we have stock sat in the warehouse. Its all part of our bonus scheme so worth the effort to get right.

The 2 kittens are having a whale of a time tearing around the garden and associated areas after their cat flap success although a little earlier it started to rain and they shot in and decided in front of the log burner was a better idea.
Sainsbury had a bit of a scare last night when his right eye looked swollen and he was rubbing it, we put in a couple of drops and even though it was still a little swollen at bedtime by morning all seemed fine. I think he maybe got a little ash in it from the hearth in front of the wood burner.

Its throwing it down just now so Sally will be glad of her high intensity headlight bulbs I fitted Wednesday to her beloved Defender "Boris". Even when I was in the Army the Landrover headlights were dire and they seem to be the same even now. We have new headlights ordered as the old ones look as if they have misted over but I guess its just poor materials. Once they are fitted she will be at least prepared for what is being forecasted as a "bad winter

Nose to the Grindstone

2011-11-03T17:07:00.000Z

Back to work and my right knee is giving me gip so i might have to go back to the knee supports for a while. Once again sitting on the check outs looks inviting!

Heck of a rain storm last night gave my new porch roof a battering and exposed a couple of areas that need attention. No doubt it will take a bit of work to get it completely right. When we first had the lean to bit put on the back of the cottage we had a window in the roof that we finally had to admit defeat with as the rain always got in!

Both kittens have now worked out how to get through the cat flap so its going to be a tense time making sure they don't get into any mischief, well not too much anyway. We lock it at night and only have it open through the day if one of us is in just ot stop them wandering too far. We have a little ploy that "generally" brings then running in. Whenever we feed them we ring a little bell so if you want them to come in you just ring it and in they swoop.

We used to do this with Grumpy the cat we had to put to sleep in summer. It however only took one trip to the vets after the bell ringing and he would sit up in the garden with a look of "no thanks" firmly on his face.

Day off today (Wednesday)

2011-11-02T06:29:00.001Z

I'm trying to take a bit of time off today as I start my weeks worth of shifts tomorrow but I think it might only be a couple of hours in the garden reading.

I finished the cover (porch) for the steps down to the back door yesterday. Its not the most attractive covering but at least its practical and hopefully will keep the snow and rain off the steps this winter. I wanted to keep as much light going down the steps as I could so I covered the top in Polycarbon sheeting and my next door neighbour John, let me have some perspex to cover the side. Due to the shape of the ground around the top of the steps its on 2 levels so looks a little odd but hey ho. picture later when it gets light.

I was working away yesterday and a man hurried along the back of the terrace asking if we had a phone as a lady had fallen down. I grabbed my mobile and followed him to the end of the terrace where I could see an old lady on the path that leads down to the A6. After dialling 999 we tried to make her comfortable but it looked as if she had broken her wrist/arm and had a couple of gashes on her face. Once the ambulance arrived the 2 medics took over and she was put in the ambulance which took her off to hospital.

At one point during the drama a friend of hers turned up who happens to be a local councillor. Our neighbour Alan, ever the practical soul, took the opportunity to complain not only about the state of the path but the fact that Peak Rail have erected a second set of gates on the approach to the facility which is a concessionary footpath.

So "to horse" and face the "challenges and opportunities" of the day

update 14:30 I had to laugh as Sally went off to work this morning. She looked disapprovingly at the new porch as I had not painted/stained it. I must admit to not even considering it. Anyway I splashed on a bit of stain this morning and will have to disassemble it a little next week to finish it off. It does look better stained ! pic below

Halloween - - - November and all that

2011-11-01T06:19:00.002Z

We survived Halloween last night with 10 children visiting in various states of ghoulishness. I have always poo poo'd trick or treat as a nasty American idea but Sally tells me that on Wikipedia ("so it must be true") that we can trace a similar antic back to the middle ages. The poor would go to the wealthy's doors more or less for a "treat", not sure how the trick bit works there.
The pumpkin pics below are the 2 Sally carved for our front windows to attract the ghouls.

I spent the greater part of yesterday putting up a frame onto the porch at the back of the house in an effort to stop the rain and soon the snow from getting onto the stairs down to the back door. it does look little odd as at the moment as I dont want to spend the considerable amount of money necessary to put tri-wall poly carbon sheeting over the whole structure. I have enough to do the roof today and will gradually do the rest before Christmas.

November already, Christmas will be here and gone before we know it and it will then soon be time for us to go on our long awaited holiday to Kurumba in the Maldives. We are both looking forward to that.

TGIF

2011-10-28T07:35:00.002+01:00

Its a Friday!! although when your in my position It really makes no odds as i work every other Friday then weekend.
Looking back on the week the broadband swap over was easy but getting the website and network working was a bit of a trial but having tested it from outside our network it all appears to be fine.

I had to laugh the other day listening to Chris Evans on Radio 2 he has kids phone in to say what they are going to do for the first time "today". They then phone back the next day to rate it out of 10.

Tuesday a 10 year old kid phoned up to say he was for the first time "visiting his personal trainer"

Yesterday another phoned in to say he was going into a studio to do a 4 track recording with his band.

Applaud both? but admire the second on I think!

Ok then mega motivation today I'm going to finish off 2 little jobs in the front bedroom that I started just after the roof and ceiling were replaced in Feb 2010. Well you don't want to rush things do you. lol

Sky Broadband Just plug it in and it works!

2011-10-27T06:35:00.001+01:00

To be fair it did work right away, I just plugged in the router to the micro filter and away it went. The speed is very good even though for the first few weeks they throttle it back at first and increase it slowly to see what the maximum speed is that your line can take.

We do however have a small network where 2 computers run the website (http://hakuraman.gotdns.com) Sally has her games machine and I have a laptop for daily use.

The router configuration for port forwarding of the website is easy to understand but just didn't work. I looked at the sky forums and a number of people had the same problem i had. Either the port forwarding looked ok and produced a "site not found" error when you tried to view it. Or strangely enough when yo looked for the site it brought up the "general" page on the router!? There were lots of suggestions on the forums but no real solutions.

I swore at it most of the afternoon and must have rebooted the computers a number of times all to no avail. But then wait! viola! it worked. I reckon it must have been something to do with how the network was examining the ports i was trying to use for the HTTP and the Webcam. Anyway this morning its all still trundling along fine. I just need to test the website from an outside the network source today to make sure that bit works.

Reach for the sky!

2011-10-27T06:25:00.000+01:00

Years ago when "broadband" was a new idea it was announced that we wouldn't get BT broadband for some time. An enterprising man called Ian Sneap who ran a business called W3Z, putting in wireless networks and telephones spied the opportunity to get broadband to us "out in he sticks".

We saw an advert about a demo in Chatsworth and after seeing it we signed up on the spot. A man came along and put a strange aerial on the chimney muttering that there wasn't much of a signal but it would be ok. It was and we have had it since 2004.

Last year they started talking about "superfast broadband" and announced a roll out programme. To cut a long story short it turns out we cant see the latest upgraded transmitter and to upgrade the one we can see, which is a shared facility, would cost a fortune so they are negotiating to build one of their own.

I had been canvassed by BT on the phone and the deal looked ok. I looked at a few other options and eventually chose sky. The fact we get Broadband Unlimited downloads was a plus for Sally's large games and my website. The clincher was Sky Talk with free evening and weekend calls. We dont use the landline much but its much cheaper now than the BT option as well as the W3Z cost.

A full weeks work

2011-10-26T06:41:00.000+01:00

Due to a little untimely leaving of a bakery colleague I was asked to work a Tuesday instead of Wednesday so here I sit after 6 straight days at work contemplating my first day off of 8, a nice contemplation!

I was informed on Sunday at work that I had been the attention of the mystery shopper again 2 weeks ealrier. Sainsbugs have a number of people who will approach a shop floor worker and generally ask for something that's either at the other end of the store or not in stock. You are then scored on the greeting, the way you deal with the problem and the farewell. I scored 100% which is my 3rd one this year. It all sounds a bit silly until you hear that the previous mystery shopper scored a colleague 42% which was from all accounts more like the shopper being ignored!

I was joking when i mentioned to the managers telling me about the encounter that I thought I should get some recognition for 3 100% scores on the trot. It seems I'm going to get one of the "love hearts", a heart shaped card where your exploit is written up. Whats more to the point is that you also get a reward coupon, so I eagerly await that!

Finally some work on the book

2011-10-21T17:22:00.001+01:00

At last i have done some of the groundwork, and there's plenty more to do!, on the book. I think i needed to get the logging closed down and out of the way as it takes up a lot of my time during the spring and summer

Anyway i spent quite a bit of time just getting the timeline of the various regiments etc together. I thought it strange at first that i couldn't recall when and where i was during my stint but it was 21 years ago that i left it so its not surprising really.

When you leave you get what's called or commonly known as the little red book. It details, or is meant to, all your service and where and more importantly when you were in what regiment and what country. Talk about full of mistakes, bits missing bits completely wrong but at least the various dates for moving from 1 regiment to the other look to be ok.

So its full steam ahead from next Thursday, i'm hoping to do at least a couple of hours a day, when i'm not working to get the thing going then review the work required in the new year.

Final logging day this year

2011-10-18T07:21:00.001+01:00

It feels quite cold this morning and its looking likely that it will be my last day up at the logging camp this year. In the last week i had felled all the trees/bushes i promised and have spent a couple of days dragging most of them them into a couple of piles where they will be burned after next years bird nesting period.

So today looks like a couple of hours work recovering a some wood from the few trees that are left and take a few pics to show the "after" result.

I stumbled over the following group of common ink caps yesterday, very nice example.

On Sunday we signed up for Sky broadband and phone calls and are now eagerly awaiting the router to complete the setup. For years now we have been with BT for phone and a local wireless network, W3Z for the internet. The reason for the change is really the internet bit we were promised a superfast link last year but its failed to materialise as we are out of site of the updated relay station?! Anyway as well as the broadband link it will cut down on our phone bill.

On Sunday We also went to Hardwick Hall to look for mushrooms, its kind of a tradition that we take a walk there every October as one year we went on an organised foray and found loads. Unfortunately the fayre was meagre as it has been for a few years. Its a nice park as can be seen from the pic below, spoiled only by the roar of the M1 the other side of the trees in the pic

The saga of the dripping tap - - -

2011-10-15T08:39:00.011+01:00

Some time ago i noticed that the 3 year old kitchen tap was dripping when it was switched off . I isolated the water supply each side to determine if it was the hot or cold side that was defective. It was the cold (right hand side).

On taking the tap apart i realised that it wasn't the old fashioned rubber washer that was defective it was the ceramic controller in what's known as "the cassette". All this means is that rather than take 2 minutes to replace the rubber washer, i have embarked on a journey of discovery on which i experience the lunatic complexities of the modern tap and am tested by the crass stupidity of customer services.

So set the scene, in the pic above the bit i need to replace is the brass bit with the blue washer (for cold, the hot side has a red one)

I take the piece i need to Wickes which is where i bought the whole kitchen from. Armed with tap part numbers etc only to be told they don't stock the part but maybe i could try "Travis Perkins" around the corner. I find this odd until later i look on the internet and understand that there are literally 100s of these things that will all look the same but differ in the smallest detil which means they only fit 1 tap.

I present myself at Travis Perkins and meet a guy called Matthew Bassett who seems to be the only person who actually knows what he's talking about in this whole sorry saga.

Matthew tells me for 1, the reason Wickes sent me to him at Travis Perkins is that TP actually own Wickes and for 2, getting the right cassette is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I leave him the part number and description of the tap. He tells me he will e mail me the details and I leave with the knowledge that to get the right bit just requires me to go to the source.

True to his word i get an e mail the following day with the details, even the telephone number and price! I need to contact a company called Jacuzzi UK which had taken over Astacast who make the tap.

Job sorted? not a bit! however i'm a little busy so i make a note in the diary to get on with it a week later.

At the appointed time i phone Jacuzzi UK and go through the normal diatribe of what i want making sure i say the "cold side" its important you see as the tap turns on fully in a 1/4 turn towards you. As ususal when we get to the depatch address the post code search brings up the wrong address, dont ask me why but it always does. So we go through me spelling out the address in full etc. Payment details completed i sit back firm in he knowledge that the part will arrive post haste and i might add post free!

2 days later an invoice with my card payment slip arrives, 5 days later i e mail Jacuzzi saying the invoice is fine but it wont stop the leak, when can i have my bit?

They e mail back saying the part was despatched the day after my order and can i check the address on the invoice is correct? It isnt but the invoice got to me why not then the part? anyway they promise to despatch another to the amended address.

4 days later i receive the part! hallelujah!1 ah but wait this doesn't look right

I knew actually before i opened the jiffy bag as the thing was far too big. I e mail Jacuzzi with a picture of the stripped down tap above explaining that they sent the wrong part. I jokingly say that this is one of those orders that is just not going to go right!! I get an e mail back "telling me" that i have an old model and that they will send me the right part that day. This explanation gets up my nose a bit as i went to the ends of the earth in explaining what i wanted in the first place.

The part arrives and viola! its the right one but wait no its the one for the hot side as it has a red washer on the end and i check that it turns "on", the other way so to speak. I e mail Jacuzzi telling them they have sent the wrong bit.

They send me the following "Will post you a cold brass valve in tonight's first class post, i am sorry for the inconveience been caused". Spellchecker and grammar need to be applied!

Anyway here i sit 3 months after starting to look for the part still with a dripping tap and 2 spare parts that wont fit.

Lessons learned
1. Dont buy (Astracast) expensive taps they WILL leak in the end just like the cheap one on offer. Or what's wrong with the old fashioned rubber washer taps!
2. Always look on the bright/funnier side of customer service cock ups.
3. Should have gone to Screwfix a copy tap is 1/3 the price.

Hold the presses!! whats this in the post this morning its the right bit! and it fits!! break out the bubbly and wash the champers glasses under the the non dripping cold tap!!!!! tralah tralah !!!!!

The shop and things

2011-10-13T17:11:00.003+01:00

At work the movement of managers after the "little scandal" looks complete i saw PW doing his usual around the fresh and bumped into MS up at the PFS yesterday so the heat looks to be cooling off. I saw Linda from fresh working in the bakery today and Deborah from fresh behind the fish counter.

Thinks, from what my boss told me the other day i wondered if it was the other way round if somebody's buns could have been well and truly burned!

It looked as if a lot of items from the fresh chillers had been thrown away after the power failure as they were pretty bare i wonder if the freezer food had a similar fate.

My winding up of Ian the security man about buying a Land Rover Discovery was complete today when i gave him a tow rope i had made out of some of my spare tree pulling rope!

I must get up to the logging site tomorrow as the weather looks to be set fair and i can move the bushes/trees i chopped down the other day. Once thats done that will complete the logging for the year.

Bits and bobs today

2011-10-13T16:58:00.001+01:00

My next door neighbour is a carpenter and he was showing me a mahogony fire surround he had salvaged from a job he was doing. He was, he said going to sell it on ebay. I thought it looked pretty cool and asked if we could put it up against our fireplace in the front room just to see if it looked ok.

It was ok but smaller than the opening and it didnt quite "go with the open log fire theme" that we have. When the power went out yesterday i decided to light the log burner and moved the surround into the back room and put it by the old fireplace which doubles as the TV cabinet/space.

"Fits like a glove" would be the operative phrase, so I bought it off him and modified the TV table a little so that everything fits.

I spent an hour or so moving the furniture around to our winter mode. This basically means moving the 2 big leather chairs into and around the log burner fireplace and moving the dining table and chairs into the back room part of the house. The kittens look a little confused but i guess they will "pick a chair" once i light the log burner next time!

Electricity is back on

2011-10-13T16:43:00.000+01:00

After enduring the evening quite pleasantly in the dark with the help of some well placed candles we trotted off to bed sure in the expectation that the house would be bathed in light at sometime during the night when the power came back on.

Alas no, with burgler alarms wailing and ringing their merry tunes for most of the night it was 5.35 before we had a spark of electricity. It then went on and off a number of times before 6.15 when it seemed to stabilise. We have had power since then although i noticed when i drove to Matlock that there were a couple of areas still without any power.

The cause was a fire/explosion, It depends which story you read, in a sub station just amile or 2 away at winster. We are being treated to an Indian meal out in Matlock later by a couple from close by Winster so will no doubt get the full tale then.

So here I sit at the top of the garden watching the sun sinking swiftly towards the valley rim opposite hoping that the lights will be on when we get home tonight. Make mental note to take head torch to dinner out!

Ok lights out everybody!

2011-10-13T07:12:00.000+01:00

There i was doing my last shift yesterday before my week off and all the power go's out. In a millisecond as prescribed by the dreaded HSE on come the safety lights and some of the shoppers even just carried on shopping. Luckily the self serve tills must have some kind of back up power and the store was cleared of customers with their shopping that way

Along comes the shop manager and says the power might be out for 3 hours, 20 minutes later it all came back on. By this time we had pulled down all the screens on the chillers and covered the stuff in the open top freezers with cardboard.

Everything back to normal - - - well no. 20 minutes later the phones went down and our hand held computers stopped working.

The reason for the problem at first appeared to be something that had happened down towards Derby but as i left the store I heard someone say that a sub station at Winster had blown up. As Winster is in our area as I arrived home i realised the power was out!

A quick check on the fish pond confirmed it as the pumps for filter and air were not running. The fish looked ok but obviously the house was completely dead.

2 hours until dark and so I pulled out the camping gas cooker and found the candles, lit the log burner etc so we were all set, though fully expecting the power to come back on any minute.

Dinner was easy with the top of the log burner and the camping stove utlilised, and afterwards we sat in the dark with the candles and torches going. Both kittens learned that candles singe the whiskers a treat! and are now sorting lop sided facial hairy bits!

Off to bed and fully expecting the power on come on later --- and later ---- and later. Burgler alarms whailing and ringing at 3.30 oh deep joy!

5.30 get up at normal time and just about to light the gas stove when the power comes back on, then off, then on. This carried on until around 6.30 and here we are at 7.00 something with it looking ok!! Could this be the start of things to come this winter, with the Daily Express already predicting power problems

Tuesday its a make and mend day!

2011-10-11T07:29:00.002+01:00

The early drizzle is, according to the local weather forecast going to be replaced by rain and wind hill fog, not much of a good deal there then. So today I intend to do a couple of hours of "book" prep then try to make a digital antennae for my old flat screen telly. I hadn't realised that my old analog one wouldn't work with the new digital "regime".

I bought one on Amazon which has been returned as I got absolutely no reaction from plugging it in. Looking at the internet you can make one for an hours work so I will try that and report back

1715 update. No joy with the antennae I might try another one from Amazon before I look for an alternative. I didnt manage to do much on the book front and am thinking I might extend the 12 month timeline i set for it. I have other "stuff" that needs doing or that I would rather be doing. I managed to make a couple of tow ropes for people i promised so the day didnt flash past without any successes!

Trouble at tmill or "the devious bites them in the *rse"

2011-10-11T07:02:00.002+01:00

Another week go's by at the fun factory and the customers antics of leaving choc ices in the bread isle and ready meals in the Beers wines and spirits are paled into insignificance by 2 developments. Sainsbugs has joined the unofficial price war declared by Tesco and Asda by launching (tomorrow) Brand Matching. The roll out has been a "secret" and we were briefed by the shop manager, you can however see all the details on the internet by just searching for it.

This "exiting" bit of news has been overshadowed by "colleague movements" that has had the rumour mill working in mega-drive. As the title of this post suggests it is connected to my post last week where I mention "A bit of the devious there but it might come back to bite them all later"
The manager from the fresh department I noticed was sitting in the canteen with a high vis jacket on that had "Petrol" on the back. I though this was strange but discounted it until I heard someone say that he had been moved up to the petrol station as manager.
A few well placed leading questions reveals that his relationship with my one time friend and now colleague DH has been taken a dim view of and that his moving back to the PFS was one of the options on offer to him.
Further intrigue when I learn that PW is now in charge of fresh, say no more -- . One hacked off likeable young colleague is being drafted into fresh as a team leader to "assist" All this happening before Christmas, the busiest and most profitable season has left DH as popular as a very nasty rash. - - - So the "biting" is complete - - - well almost, I suspect there will be further savaging's before long. Watch this space.

On a lighter note one of the characters at the shop is on the move SM a team leader in fresh is off back o work for a small local firm making model train bits and bobs. In talking to him its more money less hours and something he likes anyway. Best of luck S your leaving further puts the cat amongst the proverbial pigeons in the fresh dept.

Onwards and intriguingly upwards !

S'a funny old game

2011-10-09T17:21:00.003+01:00

Another day at the fun factory, the usual assemblage of customers trawling for a bargain, still quite a few tourists although their numbers will reduce in the next few weeks. All the big supermarkets seem to be battling for custom and Sainsbugs is no exception. We have been briefed about the master plan about to be released on the public next Wednesday. Sounds quite good actually as long as the IT bit works - - - - !.

Tried the old TV the other day and realised that the analog antenna will not work any longer. Bought a replacement on Amazon but it doesn't work! even tried it on the monster TV and still no picture. In true frontier style I'm going to try and make one, seen the options on the internet and it looks quite easy. As usual it will cost twice as much and work half as well as a bought one but hey who cares!

The new kittens are settling in quite well and have discovered that its really comfortable sitting near the log burner although Sainsbury (on the left) seems to have lost the plot on the comfort bit!

OK here's the "S'a funny old game bit". I remember when I had my last career job I was forced to go on a course about self-fulfilment and all that old bull. It really was quite a drag but in there just now and again there was the odd pearl! you know what I mean, something that makes you sit back and think, "yeah" that works for me. Since I did the course one of the things that was a spin off was a daily (well every few days at least) e mail from the guy that invented the course. I read most of them and as I said earlier, now and then there's a pearl. Anyone interested? take a look at www.thepacificinstitute.com Once you get through the "bull" it is interesting

Thinks "must get working on this book!"

Trees and cats

2011-10-06T16:03:00.002+01:00

I finally got my finger out on Tuesday and managed to fell all the trees/bushes i promised for this year. There's still a bit of work to do dragging them to a central location so they can be burned next year and i hop to do that next week when i'm off work again.

We noticed that Tesco the kitten looked a little subdued but we put it down to the fact she was tired from all the running around that both of them do. This morning she didnt run around to be fed and she looked in pain kind of sitting all hunched up. This was reminiscent of old Grumpy before we had to have him put to sleep. When i came home from work this afternoon she had perked up a bit and did eat her food but now looks subdued again. Our idea ia that she's constipated or hurt. A trip to the vet in a few minutes will hopefully let us know.

update 1745 Tesco appears to be ok and the vet thinks she may just have strained something with all the dashing about. He gave her a very small pain killing jab and said if she's not back to normal lunacy in 36 hours we might have to think about a blood test.

Monday monday

2011-10-03T06:58:00.003+01:00

Sally has picked up my cold and as usual she gets a real howler. She's up and about this morning and will no doubt be going in to work as a "snot commando"
I need to get the porch painted this morning, I like to give it lick of paint each year as you then see the bits that need more attention that just the paint. When i did the kitchen window sills i had to replace a short bit of wood and that also needs painting today.

My other job today has to be to get a bit more of the spadework done on "My book". I'm still clawing around for ideas on how to write it. Do I do it in the 3rd person or tell it as a story or a diary? No doubt some inspiration will come along, I might use the internet to trawl for ideas.

Chewing the fat in the garden yesterday we reckoned to be able to visit our Aus Babes Erin & Rachael in November 2012 so I whipped off an e mail yesterday to see if they are around then. Sally is already working on the itinerary, surprise surprise!

The weather looks ok for a bit of logging tomorrow. If I get a wiggle on i might just be able to get all the trees down that I promised for this year. All but a couple will go straight into the fire pile as they are small-ish hawthorn bushes not really worth the effort of trying to recover any firewood from.

A week go's by

2011-10-03T06:52:00.000+01:00

A few things happened over the last week as you would expect of course! One of the most significant is that Sally has had one of her cancer check up and is fine. The next one in Feb/Mar 2012 will be a full scan thing so thats a bit of a scary one.
At work the Christmas lines are developing as well as the Halloween bits have appeared. Not to be a kill joy - - - well ok then --- I cant quite understand why putting a witch and making them fluorescent green on a packet of what look like jaffa cake bars makes them so popular. I had 1 customer asking for Halloween "Parkin" which to my mind is a bonfire night cake thing. Anyway "blow me down" if it didn't appear a couple of days later.

Sainsbugs are pretty good about keeping you informed with "Monthly Briefings" etc. This months brief introduced the new slogan since they got rid of "try something new today with Jamie Oliver" Its "Live well for less". We got the corporate diatribe on how much they would need to take from each customer to achieve their next forecast and its a piffling sum of around £1-19p. When you consider how much things in general have risen in price I don't think that will be an unachievable goal! A slight hint of sarcasm there as the mince pies were £1 for a packet until the "Christmas offer!" came out at 2 packets for £2-20p!

The other change in the protocol for the colleagues is a "Love" theme. I couldn't suppress my mirth when they were handing around love heart sweets (we in the bakery didn't get any as ours as they have "disappeared") and a heart shaped piece of paper. This would explain the range of "hearts" on the wall halfway up the staff stairs with various messages on them. It seems that when say a customer or colleague says a member of staff has been helpful etc. Your deed will be trumpeted to the rest of the staff by way of a "heart". Still its recognition I suppose.
A couple of weeks ago one of the under managers rushed off as, "His mother had been taken to hospital" Not seen him since so I mentioned it to Debs and Linda who work for this guy. The look on Linda's face was nothing short of, "I'm pretending not to know what your talking about because I know what really went on".
I looked at Debs who was very tight lipped but eventually said, His mother was ok. A bit of the devious there but it might come back to bite them all later.

On the home front I finally managed to get my webcam working again, it went offline in May when we were on hols and i had been unable to get it to be recognised by the free streaming .com that I use. Some time ago I had resigned myself to it not working and replaced the stream with a large still image. It turns out to be a problem with the port number I was using. In solving the problem i picked up a bit of software called WebcamXP which lets you stream it yourself so I'm trialling that at the moment but am going to keep it on a link with a pop up window even if I publish it altogether.

I have finished reducing the logs to firewood for this year as i need to concentrate on sawing down the trees i promised for this year. I have given a fair bit of firewood away this year but think in the future I might restrict the freebies to Sally's sister and the odd bag to our next door neighbour. The area I'm felling has one very steep bit and the pic shows me using the freelander to drag a tree to the pile to be burned next year once it fried out.

this and that today

2011-09-23T17:20:00.002+01:00

Christmas is a comin, well it is as far as Mr Sainsbury is concerned, we must have at least 30 lines on the bread and cake isle alone. Its quite funny hearing the comments of customers. there are 2 camps, the, "oh lets have a look" brigade and the "i dont believe it" brigade. Personally i would rather have the Christmas stuff than this tacky "trick or treat" rubbish, nasty American idea!

We have a new 2 i/c in the shop and he's just getting around to flexing his muscles with everyone it will be an interesting time to see how he copes with Christmas.

Our 2 new Kitty's are still just running around like lunatics, its quite amusing watching them but our old cat Tom doesn't seem to want to join in. Here's a pic of them, "Resting"

The texting with Debs has ceased lately, could be that she's in love!

A Day out with the Needham woman and Mike

2011-09-20T19:55:00.002+01:00

After a Rather Boozy evening following the BBQ at which Sally invited Sharon & Mike to look around our friends Lisa & Jim's building project and i invited them to a bit of "offroading" with our 2 landrovers. Sally appeared bright as a button on Monday morning but having no recollection of the invitation!! Shades of the days when Sharon lived next door but one.

Anyway! having met up with Sharon & Mike at 10:30 we realised their holiday let was next door to our friend Peter. Later in the day I e mailed him and ticked him off for not seeing Sharon. His reply was typical Peter "I'll put some pants on and go round then" !

I took Mike over our logging routes with both the Freelander & the Defender telling him how we used to cane the Landrovers in the Army. He seemed to enjoy the experience. Sharon was with Sally and Lisa having a girlie natter. We all then had a guided tour of the Reservoir building project and both Sharon and Mike cant understand why the Peak Park is being so obstructive in granting permission to use it as a residence.

The idea then was to go and look at the "nine ladies stone circle" but as it was getting on we opted for lunch up at the "Grouse" above Froggett. Its got to be our favourite lunch spot and as usual the food was very good.

Next stop was Chatsworth and a walk from the car park up to the hunting tower and back. A quick stop at the Devonshire in Beeley and then back to ours to put all Sharons photos on a DVD as she had filled up the card in the camera.

I then dropped off the weary travellers back at the holiday let and was asked to text them the phone number of the Shalemar Indian Restaurant. I did that about half an hour later.

This morning they reported that even though they got the text they crashed out in front of the TV and log fire!!!

Mike, Sharon & Sally by the fountain in Chatsworth Stables

Mike after his 4x4 experience

Sally, Sharon & Mike lunching at the Grouse.

Short shift Saturday

2011-09-19T07:24:00.000+01:00

I had agreed to go into work Saturday for 4 hours to help put out the bread delivery which is normally very "heavy" as its termed. It turned out to be one of the smallest deliveries i have seen for a Saturday. This gave us (Becks & I) time to do a good working of the rollers and for me to get to grips with the growing number of Christmas lines that are appearing.
Its strange that the description on the box of some items bears no relation to the price label on the shelf edge. I cant imagine why this is so, its an important period in the year for sales and we don't want to get stuck with Christmas lines in the New Year so why cant they get it right. The daily ritual of "the count" will be made that little bit more difficult because of this anomaly

The Needham BBQ

2011-09-19T07:14:00.002+01:00

After our friend Sharon from Canada along with sidekick Mike surprised us by tapping on our winow in the early evening of Friday they both arrived on a soggy part of the afternoon yesterday (Sunday) for a BBQ.
Luckily the weather improved and we managed to eat in the sunshine only to retreat later to the house when the rain threatened again.

I had spent a couple of hours in the morning going through 1000's of photographs picking out the ones of Sharon so we had a slide show of these (224) Strange that almost 95% of them featrued both Sally and Sharon with glasses of booze in their hands! I gave her a CD with them all on to take home.

The Needham cometh!!

2011-09-16T18:18:00.000+01:00

Our dear friend Sharon is at last in the country and on her way to our area. We are to meet her Sunday along with her friend Mike who apparently wants a "good English sausage" . We are intending to have a BBQ Sunday so a good English sausage he shall have!!

I popped into the shop today after i had been logging with all the gear on to drop off some wood for my mate Debbs and got the chorus "I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok" lol.

Spoke to my Boss Tracy and she agreed that I could go in tomorrow morning for 4 hours and put out the bread for them, i did a days overtime Thursday as my opposite number Paul is off until Sunday so it will be a little unexpected injection into the holiday fund at the end of the period.

Book what book!!!

2011-09-16T18:11:00.000+01:00

I mentioned on the 9th of Sept that i was going to write a book on my 29 Years 197 days (!) in the Army. I sat down yesterday and attempted to write a plan and realised 1. What a fantastic time i had in the Army and 2. how the hell do you put it into a book?.

I must speak to our friend Peter who has written a book which unfortunately he hasn't had published but he must have some tips on how to go about it.

I spent an hour or so today collecting all my documents and photo's etc so at least now I have all the relevant docs that I can tie bits of story to. There will be lots that are done from pure memory, oh for a digital camera 30 years ago!

I sat down yesterday and wrote a plan of what I should do but quickly fell into the trap of trying to remember specific story lines of incidents in different regiments. All I finished up with was a heading of say 7 RHA and then a mish mash of one liners e.g. "the 9mm pistol incident", "turn right here" "Dont worry I have the map".
So I think it might be best to have a separate "document" for each regiment and put in all the one liners then expand them into stories. The time line is pretty important and i have a (loose) record of "when" i served "where" so the time line will hopefully join all the stories together.

A daunting prospect but hopefully it will all pan out successfully.

We (Tom) are not amused

2011-09-15T19:34:00.000+01:00

Kittens Tesco & Sainsbury are having a ball exploring everything and trying to eat most of the soft furnishings etc. After a couple of minor lavatorial excursions they now know what the litter tray is for and are using it quite a lot. When they were up at the farm they only got fed once a day and of course here we interpret any squeak in the kitchen to mean i want food and give it them.
Tom is definitely not amused and is still not accepting the fact that they are here to stay. He has decamped to the back bedroom and whenever he comes down he exits through the cat flap. He will have a nose to nose with one of the kittens but then its off to the garden or sits by the cars.

We are hoping that he will get used to them by the time it gets cold as it will be hard on him at his age when it gets cold. Time alone will tell.

Tesco & Sainsbury

2011-09-12T19:05:00.001+01:00

We decided over the weekend that we should get another cat as Tom is being all clingy and we are interpreting that as a sign of him pining for company
We looked at RSPCA who I hate anyway, they wanted to charge £86 for a kitten! Also Cats Protection want to do a home inspection and as we are on the main road we would probably get turned down.
I put up a sign at work asking if anyone knew of a kitten and one of the girls from the deli mentioned seeing a sign, "Kittens for Sale" on Slack Hill.
I went over after work and pulled into a farm where i was shown some delightful kittens but then had to wait ages until the lady of the house turned up to do the deal. I was actually trying to get out onto the main road when she signalled to turn in. £20 each or 2 for £30 - - - sucker! I got 2. We have a boy and a girl and I have named them Tesco (girl) & Sainsbury.
Tom is hardly over the moon at the moment but no doubt he will get used to them and knock them into shape soon enough.

Dahlia Sunday

2011-09-11T17:59:00.000+01:00

Really quite tedious at the shop today. I'm not sure why but Sundays always seem to drag even though there's plenty to do.
We propagated over a 100 Dahlia seeds in the greenhouse earlier in the year and planted them out in the garden after the frosts. I was a little disappointed at the result in the early summer but they are really coming into their own now

There's a hint of the bad weather promised by all the agencies yesterday. The wind is gusting to near 20mph and there are a number of large dark cloud formations marching across the sky and we are now getting the odd drop of rain.

Weekend working

2011-09-10T18:23:00.001+01:00

A very close clammy day at work, its ok on the shop floor but once you go back into the warehouse or have to go into the yard it was quite uncomfortable. It seems that we are about to get the tail end of hurricane Katia very late Sunday and definitely by the time daylight comes Monday. Should be an interesting prospect watching the weather develop.
Lots of "transport" people around in the shop today. In Darley Dale each 2nd weekend in September there's a show called the festival of transport, it goes on for 2 days and draws quite a crowd and obviously the shop gets a bit of a boost.

I have been thinking about writing, "the book" today, I really do need to sit down and work out the different phases of my Army service, 1 I had forgotton about was my year at Cambridge University - - - a few tales there! Then there's the photo's of course as well as some interesting bits of paper that i need to find. It should keep me going until Christmas just sorting that out.

Talking of Christmas, we already have the mince pies! and there are some Christmas ckaes on a roller that I must look at tomorrow.

You should write a book

2011-09-09T16:27:00.001+01:00

Oh dear! whenever I start talking about my time in the Army I I nearly always get the hoary old chestnut of "You should write a book" I must admit to thinking of the countless amusing and admittedly not so amusing tales I could put to paper and realise there are nearly 30 years of my life to mull over and manufacture a tome. My written English is not so good and I could use a look at a Thesaurus. What the hell ----

I downloaded a bit of software yesterday and its all designed so that you can include illustrations etc. So in effect you are doing the production of the book yourself. When its finished the online people publish the book for as many copies as you wish. You can also add the book to their list of books and do the marketing yourself they just take a cut of the profits.

So I'm going to give it a go, I will write up a project plan before Christmas and take it from there. Damn you Paul W.

Bit of drama at the shop today Michael one of the managers had to rush off as his mother was taken into hospital. Debs was supposed to be in today and didnt show. A normal day apart from that, one thing we are doing now that is new is reducing the ordinary bread along with the rolls and cakes etc. It makes for a longer job but I think the team leaders and bosses are aware that on some days it will mean other things just dont get done.

So Friday Sally is so looking forward to the week-end as she's still quite tired most days. The advent of a visit from our friend Sharon from Canada will give her a boost. Could be some hard drinking and disastrous BBQ's afoot.

Wet Tuesday

2011-09-06T11:01:00.000+01:00

Didnt get a great deal of logging done yesterday due to the rain showers, its ok to work in the rain but if you are on a steep hillside its really no place to be waving a chainsaw around.

Settled down in the afternoon to read the last of a book I was given. Its called The Feather Men by Ranulph Fiennes. A relative of Sally's asked me to read it and comment on it being true. I wont deny that Fiennes has done some pretty cool things but writing this book only props up my opinion that he's a plonker. To make money out of the tragic deaths of so many SAS men in the Oman and push "himself" forward to take the final accolade in the book is truly disgraceful. The book is pure fiction based loosely around SAS ops in the Oman War.

Quite a wet start this morning after a fair amount of overnight rain so no logging today, i must sort out the top of the garden after rescuing one of the pond plants that appears to have gone for a swim. At least the winds dropped a little now. onwards and upwards.

Blustery Monday

2011-09-05T08:19:00.004+01:00

Good day yesterday at the logging camp managed to finish off the pile of wood we were cutting up the previous day. Now looking at transporting the very first pile over to the cutting area and get that done before winter sets in. Pic below

We popped into the Church for a drink and haircut and i was amused at the name of a car in the car park, a Renault "Wind" i wonder if it suffers with it! lol

Last pic of the day yesterday a number of Ink Cap mushrooms up near the logging camp, yum yum!

We had an e mail from the Aus Babes yesterday still full of fun and looking forward to our trip over too them in early 2013.

Had a text from Debs last night saying she had fallen off her bike doing a practice emergency stop yesterday and bruised her shoulder. She's taking the Mod 1 test on Tuesday, here's hoping all go's well.

1300 got soaked this morning logging and as soon as i had finished the sun was out!! Ah well nice afternoons reading in the garden . Heard from Debs that she's had to cancel her test tomorrow due to the shoulder and her thumb is all swollen. Is she ever going to get it done!

Sunday review

2011-09-04T09:07:00.001+01:00

I did my few hours at the shop yesterday as promised, Paul my opposite number did actually come in and work and the new nightshift manager gave us a guy to help with the normal heavy Saturday delivery of bread etc so we managed to get most of it out before the shop got too busy. Most colleagues in a good mood yesterday and some quite good animated discussions going on, especially the one where Debs was asking Paul that as he was ill could she dress up in her nurses uniform and come and hold his hand?! Debs gave me 2 Whitby Lucky Ducks yesterday 1 each for Sally and me - - - sweet. Always do with a bit of luck!

After work Sally and i shot up to our logging area to try and finish off cutting up the pile of small logs into firewood size bits. She's still finding it hard going so we left a bit and need to pop back up this morning to finish it off.

First Sunday off the month so its haircutting day down at the Church pub so we will be going in so that i can have a trim

Looking at Facebook earlier in the week Tim one of my old soldiers was asking for people to donate to a young lad who has lost his father in Afghanistan and is doing the Great North Run in his memory - - - tragic and in the end like most wars what a waste. Anyone like to donate follow the link
http://www.bmycharity.com/BrandonKieranJuniorgreatnorthrun

Right then a few jobs to be done then off to the logging camp

Trouble at tmill

2011-09-02T15:26:00.001+01:00

Popped into the shop for a few things and the guy who does week on week off with me has had to go home ill. I'm going to go in tomorrow to put the bread out for them, 3 hours should be enough. Should be a few more shekels into the holiday fund!

Had a pleasant walk today to see if my leg problem would give me any pain, everything seems ok not even a twinge so thats a step in the right direction. No pun intended. I had an e mail from Ginny one of the 3 Peaks girsl from our June expedition. She reckons to have recruited her younger sister to join our Welsh 15 attempt next June. We only need 1 more to be able to have our own group and guide.

Couple of pics from the walk. The top one is at a secluded picnic spot fantastic view

loch ness monster in the River Derwent

2011-09-02T15:06:00.000+01:00

I have noticed this before and today the light was right to make it look as if we had a monster in the River Derwent

days off ahead

2011-08-31T16:25:00.000+01:00

Whew thank goodness for a few days off! funny story first though, working away on Monday (A Bank Holiday and a little tedious) when i'm approached by a lady who says "Puff Pastry", I take her along to the butter isle with husband and daughter in tow. Show them the options and then mention that we also have puff pastry in the freezer section. "We couldn't see it down there" she says. I tell her to wait there and i will go and get some to show her the various options. Trot down there pick up a couple of lumps and note the price go back and give her the details. "Whats the difference between the frozen one and the unfrozen one! she says. Dead pan reply, "Well the frozen ones a lot colder" They all see the funny side of it!

Well tomorrow i must go up and burn off the branches from last years felling I didnt do it the other day as it looked as i it was going to rain almost all day. Tomorrow is predicted to be fine so I will pop up and raise a fire or 2.

I must take up some bags as well and start filling some for Debs at work. I decided rather than deliver it she could have a few bags everytime shes at work until she has enough or i run out of spare stuff.

Just another Tuesday

2011-08-30T06:11:00.000+01:00

A day off and its looks likely that it might not rain so i will be going up to our "logging camp" later to burn all the cuttings off the trees I felled last year. I tried a couple of times last autumn but they were still to green. Once thats done there's only one job to do up there before the winter. I should really fell a few old hawthorn but i might leave it till next year. lets just see how the next few weeks of September pan out.

Friendship - - - a strange thing isnt it you put up with peoples ignorance, arrogance, rudeness and downright intolerance of anything other than their own self gratification just to remain friends with them - - - or do you?

Status quo

2011-08-26T20:05:00.001+01:00

Very busy day at the shop with usual train of people not finding what they want, 90% are easy just the normal bits and bobs. The one that took ages was a little old lady not knowing really what she had bought previously. We (a nice black girl on BWS) finally asked her to bring in the carton and we would try and find her another!!

My friend debs seems to have come back to earth having completely lost the plot the yesterday. Not sure whats going on but hey ho if you cant shout at your mates who can you shout at.

Our wonderful friend Sharon living in Canada is getting all excited at her imminent visit. They (Canadians) dont seem to have pubs as meeting places like we do and i think its one of the things she misses most. Well we can ensure she will see a few when she comes.

Sally is off to see her Big sister on Sunday as well as her uncle Peter and Heather who are over from Spain where they live. I don't really communicate with Peter much now as he once called me a "stupid idiot" when i suggested a few years ago woman were serving with front line units and were "to be" in the front line on future conflicts. hey ho pillock!!

So a busy day ahead in the fun factory!!

Onwards and upwards

Fickle females! and all that

2011-08-25T17:15:00.002+01:00

The cramp in my right leg seems to have sorted itself out after a day at work so I'm hoping it does not return.

Rather a strange encounter with my friend Debs at work today. In the blog of yesterday I mentioned not being able to see her facebook page, still not sure whats happening.

I noticed she looked a little tired and later rather angry when I approached her and mentioned this she said nothing was wrong. I said "are you sure?", in return I was told "Don't you start today!" It seems to confirm then my thought that she has failed her Module 1 bike test again. lol.

I can understand the anger bit but I'm totally bemused by the facebook bit During the to-ing and fro-ing of the day we bumped into each other a number of times and from her stony demeanour something is wrong - - - I wonder?

Must get the guttering fitted to the new porch as the water coming off it wet all the steps this morning - - - ever practical!