Gadgets

I have not been very active on here lately!

The usual excuse applies, ie "too busy".

Some of my time (and money) has been frittered away buying, and playing with, various gadgets.

The output from one of them, is shown here:

Quite pleased with myself!

Daniel and Hot Wheels

This is so much fun!

Have ordered one for Gabriel!, I am sure he will enjoy it too.

What the Future Holds

Between Big Brother and the Health Nazis....

End of the World, or, Christmas Approaches

The Mayan Calendar apparently runs out today (or at least one of them does, they were by all accounts prolific Calendar makers). This has been widely tipped to mean that the world will end today 21/12/2012. I noticed on the BBC 1 o'clock News, they were congratulating themselves on still being around on this, the day the world is to end. They also announced that the prediction was, the world would end at 11:00 on 21/12/2012.

Now, I may be being picky here, but, I doubt the Mayans were working on Greenwich Meantime, so, it seems reasonable to me, to assume the prediction means 11:00 Mexican time, which is approximately 9 hours behind GMT.

Watch this space!

Meanwhile, as Christmas approaches, I have been painting the small amount of woodwork remaining in the bathroom. What fun.

Bathroom is Complete!

Some months ago, we had a disaster in the bathroom, the cold water pipe to the bath, sprung a leak at the connection with the cold water tap.

It was not immediately clear where the leak was comming from, as it dripped through the kitchen ceiling. By the time I found it, I had taken up the laminate flooring (which necessitated removing the skirting boards), and removed the decorative bath panel.

Having made a thorough mess of the bathroom decor, it was decided we would have the bathroom "refurbished".

We had a fairly conventional bathroom, ie, bath, toilet, shower and wash basin.

It was decided we would dispense with the bath, since we both prefer to have a shower, and would put, in it's place, a larger "walk in" shower.

I took photographs, before, during and after the work.

I was not inclined to "do it myself", I jut wanted it done as quickly and painlessly as possible, but, at a reasonable price of course.

So far so good, it all sounded fairly simple.

As always, things are never as straight forward as they appear.

It quickly became apparent that, in terms of choice of actual fittings, it did not matter who we chose to do the work, but, that the key to getting a "good job" lay in the fitting, not in the selection of equipment (providing fittings of reasonable quality where chosen).

It also became apparent that the choice of tiles was crucial to the final appearance of the job.

We began the time consuming job of getting quotes to do the work.

Apart from one quote, which was way out of line (almost double the next highest quote), there was very little in the price, we eventually chose to go with a company whose work we had seen in two of our friends or relations houses, ie Snugfit, South Shields.

The bathroom fittings where quickly chosen, but, tiles, ugh, what a nightmare. Numerous visits to various tile showrooms (it really is necessary to see a "mock up" of what the tiles will look like), but eventually, a choice was made.

Come the appointed day, and our two Bathroom Fitters (Pete and Mark) turn up.

First task is to remove the "old" bathroom fitting and tiles.

Next, the pipework was rerouted (I had specifically requested that no pipework was to be visible), waste pipes laid, and tiling commenced.

The work went extremely well, supplied with continous cups of tea and chocolate biscuits, Pete and Mark worked diligently at their task. Held up only by the none arrival of various essential parts (eg shower screen, shower tray etc). Snugfit need to get their logistics sorted, in my humble opinion, but, apart from that, no problem.

Eventually, ten days after work started, it is all finished!

The traumas are forgotten when we see the excellent job.

Just when I am thinking I can relax, the awful truth dawns, it is not over yet.

There are various "accessories" to be chosen.

My first delaying tactic is to suggest, we need to use the room for a little while, to be sure of where we want towel rings, toilet roll holders, linen baskets etc etc, after all, we don't want to drill holes in our beautiful new tiles, only to find we wish to move the towel ring or whatever to a different location, do we?

This works for a few days, but, eventually, I am forced to visit Fenwicks, John Lewis and B&Q in a quest for the required "extras", more of my hard earned cash slips from my fingers!

I should point out here, I hate clutter, so far, I have successfully fought a rearguard action to prevent the acquisition of any "ornaments", to "take the bareness" off.

I like bareness, it leaves no where for dust to collect.

In fact, I think the poncy interior designer lot even have a word for the "bare look", the call in being "minimilst".

To be honest, this is not a war I expect to win (do men ever win, when confronted with the ultimate enemy ie a woman?), I just know, Kathleen will acquire and place her little features, given time, but for now, I can delight in the empty windowsill, and the "acres" of bare marble surface with not a single thing to mar it's emptyness. Heaven, for now.

Stir Crazy

We are in the process of having our bathroom "refurbished", so, one of us has to be around to make cups of tea for the workmen, provide chocolate biscuits etc etc

Added to this, the first snow of the winter is falling steadily outside, so, I am going "stir crazy", sitting around the house, this is now the 7th day!

There was a pleasant diversion, when Gary, Susana and Gabriel came to visit, whilst Gary did an inspection on a ship at Sheppard Offshore, but, today, I am reduced to watching Youtube.

Came across this hilarious Jasper Carrot video, from the days when we all thought the Russians and/or the Americans where going kill us all in a nuclear war. Now we know we have avoided that fate, only to be blown out of the sky by some Muslim Suicide Bomber as we fly off for our annual fortnight in the sun.

What is the REAL News??

Today it has been announced that Kate Middleton (Prince William's wife) is pregnant.

Not surprising really, isn't that what usually happens when you set two healthy young people, of the opposite sex,  "at it" in some remote part of Wales (or anywhere else for that matter)?

The big news is, she has been admitted to hospital with acute morning sickness, so I wonder, what bit of REALLY bad news are the Government hiding behind the wall to wall coverage of this none event?

There has been quite a lot in our local newspaper recently about parking problems, so, I could not resist a photograph of this bit of class parking. No, the car has not been abandoned there, it is parked!

Just in case any male chauvinsists think it was "parked" by a woman, no, it was parked by a man.