Saturday 25 April 2009

Positively Perfect Paint!

Today, I am pleased. We went for a trug round the shops, a shop schlep and found an ideal bathmat. His Lordship pointed it out and luckily I had my paint sample in my bag still. We pulled it out of the pile, dropped the sample tube on it - and the colours match perfectly. I was even more satisfied to discover the sale had an extra 20% off!

P.S; put the sample on the wall today, slightly bluer than expected, but deliciously fresh. Will look great and as expected, should soften the intense green of the suite. (<--- click to see true colour. DIY.com)

I have realised just how crazy this house is.

I don't mean the inhabitants, I mean the actual house.
We all know about the bathroom fiasco, with the non-existent vent attached to the bathroom fan, as well as the failed roof, soggy cupboard and various other issues including the outdoor hosepipe tap that, whilst it has a pipe going INTO the house, doesn't actually appear to be attached to anything when you look for it inside. There's a surprise. But there's a new one I've just discovered. I went and wired in the old Digibox from upstairs into the downstairs TV, checked it over, switched it on... to find it all going to hell on the screen. Having recruited Himself to help me find the problem, we mulled over it, swapping cables around and trying to ascertain just what had happened.

It seems the entire aerial system wired into the house has been done backwards. We have female ports inside the house and male points leading to the mast itself. Thankfully we had a male-male cable handy and quickly rectified the issue. Whoever built this place, I commend your genius! Truly a remarkable move, one that kept us guessing for some 15 minutes.

Relevant Quote of the Day: "No, you haven't broken it. It's the house that's broken." - Him.

Thursday 23 April 2009

Fancy Flamin' Faucets...

The weekend was spent in a nightmare of basin tap prices. I can't believe a pair of plain silver coloured taps cost nearly £70. What the heck is THAT about? We spent literally 6 hours walking between DIY stores trying to find an idea to make our 70s avocado/jade green bathroom suite look a bit better. Fortunately, Retro is starting to make a comeback in bathroom suites - hopefully, if I scrub it up well enough, nobody will notice it's from the first time round... It seems most people with avocado suites tend to go Mediterranean but I don't think I could live with myself if I did that. I tried spending time in a bright yellow bedroom and it made me nauseous. Thus we are contradicting most of the Med advice and going with the uber-cool Akingsho reccommendations. Charcoals and silvers with pale green walls to gently neutralise and brighten the room/bath. And I'll just swap the upstairs sink taps for the downstairs taps - they match the bath!

Topps Tiles, whilst they didn't have tile paint, had a very nice heated tile demonstration going. Which was extremely useful as the sun had briefly tucked behind a cloud and Kyle was getting grumpy. (Imagefail: Topps Tiles homepage.)

"I'll do you a swap - you go get your coffee and I'll let you get me a drink too." - long pause - "What? ... No!"

Thursday 16 April 2009

Cadbury's Creme Crap

So far this week:
I have made my knee funny by jumping up too fast and falling over.
I have stepped on a VERY large thorn that peirced through my shoe and went deep into my foot.
Stepped down with the other foot out of the shed, misjudged it and gave myself a lump when my head made contact with the doorframe.
I had to put my bike on the floor instead of dropping it, as the front tyre caught on the ledge and my foot meant I couldn't catch it. (No damage thankfully.)
And to top it off, I leaned down the side of the bed to pick up an elastic band - the pillow supporting my elbow slipped and I fell forward, smacking my head on the wardrobe.
All I could do was laugh...

The Cadbury's Creme Egg Icecream, pilfered from a box that mysteriously appeared on our freezer shelf.... It looks a lot like a smaller Magnum, so automatically I expected something a lot like a smaller Magnum with a sweeter, syrupy, less vanilla flavour. The box is deeply alluring and I have to say it looks GOOOOOO-D. Sadly, it's not. Not at all. It's a bizarre consistency, almost marshmellowy and quite dry (although this might be due to our freezer - the outside of the icethings was covered in an odd, yellow and sweet frozen liquid which seems to have leached out of the icething itself). The chocolate covering is thin and poor quality; nothing like the solid CRUNCH from the Magnum or for that matter from a proper Creme Egg. Quite a disappointment. And so, I discovered that biting His Lordship's furry backside tastes much nicer (if hairier). Which is worrying, to have to go to such extremes to rid ones mouth of fake ice cream flavour. To paraphrase the advert: Goo-ing, Goo-ing, Gone - to be sick. YURK.

Monday 6 April 2009

Bobbity-Bob

The Chinese National Circus has been postponed, so we can't go for two months, but that's ok as I still have to work on Saturday and no-one's told me when I'll get the day back (see last bloggage). This is worrying, because we simply don't have enough staff to cover anything much; days, sickness, holidays... The inspectors are still prowling round and several staff are unavailable, so our resources are very, very thin. There are already some concerns that we may have to temporarily close my small branch on a couple of days due to lack of staff. I know we were supposed to be cutting back, but quite frankly, this is ridiculous! How can we be expected to maintain quality service with such uneven staffing and uncertain prospects? But enough ranting.

The Dragons are beginning to improve alongside the weather - the finer the weather, the more interesting the lizard. Whilst not appreciated, the fresh dandelions are also proving to be good, as they're both more active. Tsam is now a master of the Stairs (much bobbiting) and Kyle has worked up enough guts to be territorial back at him. She's just started a brave headbob at Tsam, with a smudgy black beard. He goes absolutely nuts - but she's winning at last!

I was watching "Chris Ryan's Elite Police" today. I can't say I'd recommend it, but He's enjoying it. I can however summarise it beautifully: It's like a presenter fed a serious pill and a case of the obviouses; the camera man is high on ketamines, waving around a shiny new toy that he's excited about (the camera), attempting to film a cross between the weather announcement and a nature show... with some guns.

It seems this gym is working! I've lost 6lbs already, though it's half-killing me some days. They are quite brilliant at Goldenstones, however they do push you hard. 8 minutes on the crosstrainer is enough to make me want to quit, but I've worked it up to 15 like they wanted, in fact I did 20 the other day. It strikes me as odd that I work my ass off to get paid, and then use that money to work my ass off, but there you go.

Friday 3 April 2009

"Spring is what winta, always gozinta" - Ogden Nash's doggerel

Finally the worst of the weather is over and I've just started the new spring's gardening. I put up my little greenhouse and I've planted some cayenne and red bull chilis as well as some worldbeater bell peppers and some dwarf lavenders. My rosemary, lavender, chive, two types of mints and two types of thyme have shot back up. Also the raspberries, gooseberries and rhubarb are leafing enthusiastically, and I have to start planting my radish, onion and lettuce soon... The front lawn dandelions are lush and bright, providing yummy Dragon Salads!

I've moved some of the smaller new raspberry stalks to more convenient locations in the patch and added a nice little plot of strawberry plants. The rhubarb is already delicious - it was a little out of hand already so I put a couple of the more ungainly stalks into a mixed fruits crumble. The passionflower has been shifted and has survived the first couple of days! Ooh, I've also begun planting my next hanging baskets with lobelia as last year's fuschia is beginning to sprout.

Still lots to do, but the garden is starting to look good - the lawn has been combed free from mosses, the entire back border weeded and raked. (Images: Pixdaus - Rachid Hankour and Unknown)