What have you been doing today?

[Bod ...]

Yeah, insurance conference. Got to spend Bod’s insurance premiums somewhere

I think he could get himself a nice coffee ️ machine.

 

[Odds]

Fighting off the last surviving bugs of a head cold. Terrible carnage yesterday: mucus and mayhem accompanied by the hacking sounds of a lung-infested virus making its way up into the sinus, preparing for a last stand, backs to the membrane wall of my dribbly nostrils. Bog roll everywhere. The acrid odour of cordite amid the fumes of honey and lemon stinging the eyes. Nothing to smoke for three days. It's hell out there, i tell you. Hell. With bells on...or that could be the ringing in my ears? A terrible tune; discordent and distant, like a ships bell on a foggy morn. A mournful toll to pay the piper. At the Gates of Dawn. Tell Syd...

 

[Mottie]

Just back from my dog walk over Thorndon country park. The woman I walk with, a friend of ours, was unusually quiet this morning. When we finished the walk, her dogs jumped into her car but she told them to get out as she had a job to do. She got out a carrier bag out and said to me "Feel the weight of that". It felt like she had a brick in there. She told me it was the ashes of her mum, her dad, Poppy (Susie’s mum), Maisie (Susie's aunt) Izzy (Susie's nan) Monty (Susies great grandad) and her cat! She had been holding on to them for years and had decided to scatter them among the bluebells. She says she comes here every day and thought it would be the ideal place to scatter them. I agreed with her but left pretty quick as I could see she was welling up and it was something she had to do alone. I can only imagine how she feels - we had our cats ashes indoors for about 8 years and when we planted a rose bush in one of her favourite sunny spots where she would lay in the garden, we scattered them in the hole and then we both burst into tears!

I wouldn’t mind being scattered amongst the bluebells in the woods where I regularly walk either.

 

[Mottie]

Building up my 'ready assembled' oven housing. I had to alter the two shelves it came with, plus an extra shelf for the top oven but no pre-drilled holes to fit it. Had to fit and refit both ovens to work out where to put the shelf. To do that I had to remove the bracing bar that was in the way and that made it as wobbly as feck! Now on a break and after that I have to make up a panel in the bottom cupboard to fit three plasterboard back boxes - one for each oven and one for the fridge. I’ve then got to butcher it to clear some central heating pipes and then I have the fun of fitting the ovens and the top tilting door and the slide out pan drawer at the bottom. If I get all that done by bedtime, I’ll be very happy!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Fixing a four slice toaster -again. We'd run out of bread yesterday, so Avril dashed out to Lidl, to get a loaf, then this morning the toaster wouldn't latch on. She had to get one of the older spares, kept in the top cupboard. It wasn't my previous repair which had failed, but the same component on the other half of the toaster - a thin metal arm, which moved the toast holder down, then latched by a solenoid.

Having reinforced that, put it all back together, it was sometimes tripping the RCD, but with no obvious reason, so for now - we are keeping the spare toaster to hand.

Next job, was cleaning the BBQ, in readiness for our first BBQ of 2024 - possibly later today, weather dependant.

 

[Mottie]

Building up my 'ready assembled' oven housing. I had to alter the two shelves it came with, plus an extra shelf for the top oven but no pre-drilled holes to fit it. Had to fit and refit both ovens to work out where to put the shelf. To do that I had to remove the bracing bar that was in the way and that made it as wobbly as feck! Now on a break and after that I have to make up a panel in the bottom cupboard to fit three plasterboard back boxes - one for each oven and one for the fridge. I’ve then got to butcher it to clear some central heating pipes and then I have the fun of fitting the ovens and the top tilting door and the slide out pan drawer at the bottom. If I get all that done by bedtime, I’ll be very happy!

Pah, I called it a day - had enough for today. Managed to build up the housing, fit it in place and fit the ovens. Still got to wire them up and fit the doors but I am the messiest worker I know - I lost 3 pencils, 2 Stanley knives and 2 tape measures. Found them all when I had a clear up. Got the extractor being delivered tomorrow so I can work out where I’ll need a spur to go for that and I can chase that in, then my mate is coming round on Friday morning to skim the wall for me so the ovens can wait for now. Mrs Mottie is just glad she's got the hall back with the ovens out of the way!

 

[JonathanM]

Pah, I called it a day - had enough for today. Managed to build up the housing, fit it in place and fit the ovens. Still got to wire them up and fit the doors but I am the messiest worker I know - I lost 3 pencils, 2 Stanley knives and 2 tape measures. Found them all when I had a clear up. Got the extractor being delivered tomorrow so I can work out where I’ll need a spur to go for that and I can chase that in, then my mate is coming round on Friday morning to skim the wall for me so the ovens can wait for now. Mrs Mottie is just glad she's got the hall back with the ovens out of the way!

Remember to join the extractor hood to the vent pipe.