March
31 - Up around 7:40am
to the sounds of the bin men . . PCd waiting for PS to surface. I
STILL couldn't get my bank site to work right!! The longer that
goes on, despite the symptoms, the more uneasy it makes me feel
and rather suggests it IS a problem my end!! Just to rule that
out, I selected a system check point date from ages ago and
actually did a system restore before having another go. Uhoh!!
That DID the trick!!! It WAS a problem my end!!!!!
all walked in the hint of drizzle
and strong freezing cold wind . . PS left . . pottered around and
sat about feeling tired before finally mustering the courage to
re-string my Stagg guitar. God I do SO hate having to do that. I
guess in the end it didn't go too badly, and although I didn't
get it perfect, I think it's ok. Now I've changed the strings, I
think it's pretty clear the ones that were on there when I got it,
were actually considerably finer/thinner than the 'medium' I've
just put on. Being the cheap guitar it is, I think with hindsight,
I would have been better off fitting lighter strings to it! As it
is, it doesn't sound quite so nice, and with my poor fingering
seems more inclined to 'buzz' the strings. Ho hum :o| . . ate
sausage rolls, crisps and chocolate. . napped . . guitarred a
little but mostly just TVd the evening away, feeling rather down
and incredibly cold. . ate soup, sausage roll, bread and butter,
crisps and chocolate . . to bed at 1:11am.
30 - Up just after 8am . .more rain - still! PCd
a bit of this until PS got up . . drove to walk in the heavy rain,
which actually stopped by the time we got round and drove back .
. left Sally at home and drove in PS car to Paignton . wandered
around the shops in the rain . PS paid for cumberland sausage,
mashed potato and bacon bits in onion gravy with a pint of
Newcastle Brown Ale for lunch in a sea front pub . more wandering
around in the showers and a quick foray onto the pier. Horrible.
. . TVd feeling oh SO tired and headachey . . eventually ended up
TVing the whole evening away . . ate pizza and biscuits. . .
eventually to bed somewhere around 2am. s
29 - Up just before 8am . . walked . . went on-line
to transfer some money over but the on-line banking thing wasn't
working - still! I'd tried to do things last night and had
trouble, but assumed it would correct itself by the time I next
tried! Ended up having to get through on the phone and have them
do it manually. I tried to explain there was a problem (their end)
but as usual I'm pretty sure they ignored that and just assumed
it was my problem . . left Sally at home and drove to buy dog
food supplies. Toured one of the big DIY stores kinda just having
a look at everything before eventually heading for the pet food
store. Spent a small fortune of £64.92! (2x17kg 'Wagg Worker'
dry mix for £15 the pair; large bag of gravy bones £2.05; chewy
rawhide 'bone' £1.99; 48 tins of Winalot for £26.18; 48 tins of
'own-brand' for £19.70). That'll keep her going for a while!! .
Briefly toured the Staples store looking at everything before
buying a stack of 100 16x speed DVD-Rs for £26.46. . drove home
in the rain, breifly stopping at the local store for an expensive
£1.15 iceburg lettuce, no bigger than a large apple! The woman
behind the till suggested that was all that was available
anywhere at the moment for some reason. That works out to be a
real expensive deal I won't be repeating for a while! . .
vacuumed and cleared up in the spare room a bit . . ate salami
and lettuce rolls, crisps and biscuits . . napped until woken by
PS calling to say he would be leaving soon . . Much rain. Skipped
the walk. . ended up on-line and then back on the phone for the
best part of an hour, talking to bank technical support staff,
trying to convince them there was a problem with their site. I'm
convinced it wasn't anything my end because of the symptoms of
the problem, and I tried my hardest to convince them that.
Eventually, as suggested, I took a couple of screen shots and e-mailed
them to them. . PS arrived. TVd/chatted the evening away. .ate
crisps, sausage roll and many biscuits . . rescued a pair of
newts from the patio again. I'm really starting to wonder if they
ARE capable of climbing verticle surfaces and therefor back out
of the patio area, and if I should just leave them alone? .
eventually to bed just after 2am. s
28 - Up around 8:30am. It's gonna take me ages
to adjust to summer time, although given my existance, it hardly
makes any difference to me does it. . walked and hung around in
BGdns for most of the morning, in the mood to be filming
something. Typical - everything was dead still and quiet, and
there was really nothing to film at all . . put laundry on and
then went on-line, transferred savings and re-newed my car tax
for the year (£125). Balanced my accounts. .'touched' the wall
at the top of the stairs with a little filler and put an
undercoat of paint on the skirting graft. . . drank a glass of
red wine and ate defrosted 'dog food' pork with chips and gravy .
. napped until the alarm at 7pm. Trouble waking up! . . TVd . .sanded
filler and painted the wall. I think that's gonna have to do for
the forseeable future. It just looks like it could do with a bit
of 'proper' decorating now - which is pretty much where I always
seem to stop working on things rather than finish it off prperly.
I regard everything as an unfinished work in progress with more
stuff to do, so why waste time and money on 'decorating proper'
before it is all done. Given all the structural/building type
work I always seem to end up doing, if all that is required to
finish things off properly is a bit of sanding and a few coats of
paint - I'll live with that! . . guitarred/TVd a little before
eventually ending up on the PC looking at youtube guitar videos.
With the strings threatening to snap at any moment on my 'new'
Stagg guitar, I dared to experiment with the 'alternate' DADGAD
tuning!!! I've never dared to do that on my other guitar because
of the hassle I have trying to tune it by ear, but with the built
in tuner on the Stagg it suddenly seemed quite possible to
experiment with. Silly really, because I haven't learned to play
anything or where notes are on standard tuning yet! . .
Interesting different sound. I need to muster the courage to
change those worn out strings! . . rescued another stranded newt
from the patio. Tiny little thing it was - and seemed all kinda
lethargic and unwilling to attempt to escape me! :o| . . ate
pastie, crisps, banana and biscuits before to bed around 2am. d
27 - Up just before 8am, still with the nasty
headache I had most of yesterday! . . walked. A few glimpses of
welcome sunshine making things feel pretty warm for a bit. .a
couple of the local kids have been moving some of the timber I
cut down in BGdns, and have been making themselves a fort! The
bad news about that is, instead of the huge, relatively 'neat'
wood-pile I made, there is now a huge mess of cut branches all
over the place! Looks awful - and is liable to get people all
upset! To make things worse, this morning they'd discovered the
pile of fly tipped debris up near the road, and had decided to
carry most of it down onto the top of the gun emplacement, to add
to their mess!!! HELL of a state the place is in now! They're
liable to get me in trouble! :o( . a group of visitors appeared
in the gardens and started taking photos of their group. As is my
habit, I offered to take one for them, of them ALL, rather than
all BUT the one taking the photo. I took a couple on their camera
but, being unfamiliar with it, it was a little hard to tell if I'd
actually taken a decent shot. Half jokingly I suggested I'd use
my camera and e-mail the pictures to them if they had an e-mail
address. One of them did, so I got him to jot it down on my
cigarette papers packet, and took a couple of snaps of them
before heading home . . reduced in size and e-mailed the (poor
but probably adequate) couple of photos :o) . . . did dish
washing chores until Mum arrived. Spent ages back on Google
streetview so Mum could have a look at a couple more peoples
houses (she'd actually brought her address book especially! lolol).
PS called and said he'd be down on Monday evening to visit/stay
for a couple of nights. . ate chicken and stuffing rolls, crisps,
banana and chocolate . . napped . . guitarred/PCd/TVd the evening
away . . ate a mum donated pastry slice, crisps, bananas, and
half a buttered golden syrup cake . . clocks changed to
summertime . PCd aimlessly surfing e-bay and such until getting
on for 4am before bed!! s
26 - Up just after 7am . . walked and carried on
for a look around the harbour and then returned via town to draw
some cash out. Scored a raincoat in a charity shop for £8. . PCd
just aimlessly surfing a bit. Actually bumped into a spreadsheet
on-line of UK fishing vessel register data. Weird thing was, it
seemed to suggest both of the scallop dredgers I looked up, had
no licence for shellfish. That seems a bit unreliable doesn't it
- or do they have a totally different sort of licence? All very
alien stuff to me. . 'touched' the wall at the top of the stairs
with a little filler here and there, making a few of the more
noticeable blemishes just a 'little' less obvious. If I do a
little of that from time to time, before getting a couple of
decent coats of emulsion paint on, I think that'll have to do. It's
disappointingly far from (my) perfect, but it does NOT leap out
at you as you climb the stairs or pass it, so I think overall,
especially considering it is just the bare wall painted without
any paper on, that must be considered a successful operation . .trimmed
my hair and then vacuumed around the place a bit . . ate two
burgers in buttered bread rolls with chips and a little chocolate
around 4pm . . Horrible headachey! Lay down briefly for a half-asleep
nap until raised by Sally barking at next door tapping on the
window. The car had passed the MOT. Yayyyy. Handed over the £40
and then brought the car round the back to turn it back into a
mobile dog kennel, with all the rear seatbelts safely stowed away
to prevent damage, the back seats down, and a couple of old
duvets spread over the floor. . drove to walk in drizzle . . PCd/guitarred/TVd
the evening away . . ate multiple bowls of co-co pops and
chocolate before to bed around midnight. saa
25 - Up around 6:15am again. . woke up with
coffee and cigs reading the local news website etc and then got
bogged down PCing this for ages. . walked. No scallopers today so
I guess they've cleared them all out! That's gonna haunt me now
every day I sit there for my cigarette and look out at the view -
knowing that just there beneath the waves is a scoured-dead area
of seabed! :o( . one of the dog walkers mentioned someone had fly-tipped
some rubbish just off the road along from the entrance to BGdns,
so I had to go have a look and be suitably outraged. A pile of an
old piece of carpet, some flooring timber and what looked like
part of some sort of furniture unit with a plastic CD rack
attached, had all been thrown over the wall into the undergrowth.
Bastards! . . . spent the WHOLE day working on the 'scallop'
video!!!! MUCH adjusting of the speed trying to 'play' everything
to the music, INCLUDING the many camera shakes and jerks!!!
Fiddly and time consuming.. . ate ham and grated cheese rolls
with crisps and then a little chocolate . . napped for an hour or
so until woken by Sally barking. Next door had tapped on the
window. He'd take the car in for an MOT attempt tomorrow. They
are currently doing them for £40 he said! Blimey! I am SO out of
touch with reality these days, that seemed like an enormous
amount of money to me, but after asking various dog walkers, it
IS apparantly the going rate, and even a not bad going rate. I SO
cannot afford to have a car! . took everything 'doggy' out of the
car, put all the back seats and seat belts back up in position,
and then drove it round and parked it out front before handing
the keys and old MOT to the neighbour. . straight back to work on
the PC/Scallop video for hours . . LB called to touch base around
midnight . . finally called it quits and uploaded the video to
Youtube around 2am!! 'Quite' happy with that one - at the moment.
A funny little momento of my first(only?) cooking and consumption
of scallops. Not bad considering it was all filmed mostly on
maximum zoom without the tripod - with the camera handheld or
propped up on a wooly hat! lol . ate a bowl of cornflakes and a
banana before to bed around 2:30am!!!
24 - Up around 6:15am. More rain. Forecast is
pretty much that for the whole week! . . walked. Yayyy - that
crab pot marker buoy the seal were getting all caught up in has
been removed from the cove by someone. EXCELLENT. . Once again, a
flotilla of boats were going round and round and round raking
over the seabed and hauling in tons of catch!! That's day three
that I know of in that same area, and a dog walker I spoke to
suggested they were working like that well into the evenings!
Hard to believe that ANYTHING will be left alive down there at
this rate. Once again the sea was all coloured by the disturbed
sand, strongly suggesting the entire habitat was being completely
systematically destroyed!! :o( . ended up having a prod for quite
a while with the camcorder, just trying to zoom in and see what
it was they were actually dredging up. I'm not entirely sure what
'scallops' are, but I'm pretty sure that's what they were
catching. (Dog walkers have suggested they are VERY nice to eat
when simply fried in a little butter. I've NEVER eaten them in my
life! ) So heavy were the beams of loaded chain nets when they
were hauled up that the boats were very much heaving over in the
water, and actually on several occasions were getting fouled in
submerged discarded fishing-gear obstacles and having to use
angle grinders to cut it away before they could haul in their
chain 'nets'!!. . eventually gave up filming and walked down town
with Sally in the increasing rain, with the intention of trying
to satisfy my curiosity and see if I could ask someone what it
was they ACTUALLY were all suddenly 'harvesting', and fully
intending to see if I could buy some scallops to try. Stopped at
the fish merchant counter in the new fish market building and was
able to confirm it WAS scallops they were hauling in. I'm not
sure I got it right, but my understanding of his explanation was,
something along the lines of they were simply concentrating on
that area because there was little else they could do/nowhere
else to go at the moment!?? I've no idea if that meant their
normal fishing grounds were overfished and empty or if there were
'quotas'/restrictions involved, or perhaps they were just getting
a good price on scallops at the moment? I went ahead and paid £3
for a small bag of scallops (just the meat bit, already removed
from the shells). (I passed a restraunt at one point and they had
scallops on the menu for around £14!!!!! They are NOT cheap!) .
. toured charity shops and scored a nice small chrome swivel
mirror for the bathroom for £3. Bought some burgers in the
butcher and scored some bones for Sally before buying some butter
for the scallops and eventually heading home in the rain. .
surfed and looked up what to do with scallops. Ain't the internet
marvellous - plenty of videos on how to cook them! lol Sadly
there were also a couple of amazing bits of film showing the
actual scallop dredging in action, from the underwater
perspective of the nets! As I'd feared, it absolutely destroys
the entire sea bed and all life on it! :o( AWFUL!! . . eventually summoned the nerve and set about
cleaning, drying and cooking the scallops. It really could hardly
be easier. A VERY hot pan, melted butter, 'sear' the scallops on
either side for about a minute - and eat them. Simple as that! So
- I've eaten scallops now. Actually they weren't bad, although I
can't see myself making a habit of it - and considering how those
boats were acting, there won't be many left anywhere in the sea
anyway! I think the main thing I have against scallops (aside
from the ecological/moral issues), is the overpowering smell I
ended up with all throughout the house! The place absolutely
stank (and probably still does!) and after a few hours I actually
started to feel a bit sickened by it. . . put just a little more
paint on bits of the wall at the top of the stairs . . PCd/guitarred
for hours getting nowhere and acheiving nothing . . TVd . . once
I'd finally got my appetite back, ate four pieces of bread and
butter with a big burger, sausages, bacon fry up, followed by
biscuits and chocolate . . fell asleep for half an hour or so on
the sofa before eventually to bed around 1am. s
23 - Woken by Sally around 7:30am, shortly
before a thick fog descended . . Sally's limp appeared to be
sufficiently improved to dare to walk her this morning, rather
than drive. . for at least the second day running, several boats
were all going round and round by the entrance to the outer
harbour at the end of the breakwater, working the sea bed there
right in as close as they could come. Quite unusual. No idea what
they were catching, but it must have been worth it to them.
Unsettling to watch actually. Round and round and round, with the
sea all coloured-up by their gear constantly raking back and
forth over the seabed! Whatever was down there doesn't stand a
chance, and the seabed must SURELY end up resembling an empty
desert! :o( . eventually walked back in the rain with a carrier
of left overs meat for Sally from K . . sanded down the wall at
the top of the stairs as rain fell for most of the day. More dust
everywhere! . Mum called and then popped in on her way down town.
I'd asked her to drop off the purse I found a while ago, into the
police enquiry office, because I keep putting off going down
there and was in danger of just putting the damned thing in the
bin (since the only thing of value in it, a student ID card was,
going to run out in a month or so anyway, and because whoever it
belonged to was partly responsible for a load of litter and
smashed glass in one of the gun emplacements where I found it!) .
. eventually just gave up on the wall and put a first coat of
emulsion paint over it, to force a halt. That ended up not going
well. The wetness of the paint raised some of the filler off (so
I'll have to scrape that off and re-fill/re-paint it!) and in one
or two areas I got that weird bleed-through of brown staining
again! This stupid little bit of wall really is turning into a
never ending nightmare! :o( . . PCd briefly . . ate K donated 'dog
food' pork, chips and gravy followed by some chocolate . .
guitarred/TVd the evening away, feeling headachey, down and
miserable and having a real hard time staying awake . . ate bowls
of co-co pops before to bed around 11pm. a
22 - Up around 6:30am. . . drove to walk . .
managed to force myself to put a few more hours into working on
the wall at the top of the stairs - sanding down and applying
liberal quantities of different mixes of PVA/filler as required
in different areas. VERY time consuming load of nonsense, and
frankly I just didn't want to bother! Probably spent as much time
just sitting looking at it as I did working on it. It's gonna
take several days of just doing the same thing over and over
before I can even begin to contemplate putting paint on any of it
- and even then I know damn well it isn't going to look very flat/good
(although I AM eager to get some paint on my skirting board graft,
because that WILL look ok and as though it's always been there. I
get a little bit of pleasure out of looking at that every time I
go up the stairs right now! Sad! lol) . . ate ham and lettuce
rolls, crisps, half a coffee sponge cake and a square of
chocolate . . napped for only an hour or so. Woke from a
nightmare (I was
on a push bike and Sally ran off out of sight chasing a cat
through traffic, and I had to try and follow and catch up with
her, all the while hoping she wouldn't be knocked down,
especially at the junctions!?)
overheating badly . . guitarred . . TVd . . let Sally out in the
garden before her evening meal, and had to rescue two newts which
had become trapped on the lower tier by the house. I SO wish I
could alter the garden in some way to stop things getting trapped
there like that, but ANY attempt at doing so would be a HUGE
project in itself, and frankly it's difficult to envisage how it
could ever be prevented given the lay of the land. . PCd this for
hours . .TVd . . ate sausages, bacon and bread and butter . .
rescued another newt before to bed around 1:30am.
21 - Woken by Sally around 7:30am. She actually
climbed the stairs to wake me, so I guess that is a good sign
regarding her leg/limp. . Not enough sleep or food! Woozy tired..
drove to walk in the sun. Sally's limp IS much improved. It's
still an issue, and I'm loathed to push it by walking her any
distance yet, or letting her jump down onto it out of the car,
but it IS definitely improved. Thank god!. . . somehow managed to
muster the energy to have a go at messing around with a bit of
skirting board on the unfinished wall at the top of the stairs.
Utterly absurd, but that little area of skirting has bugged me
for the last couple of years - every time I climbed the stairs
and had to look at it! (OCD? lol) The normal flight of stairs
goes up, there is a small square of 'landing' area upon which you
turn left, then there is a final single stair up onto the landing
proper. For some inexplicable reason, when they built the house,
they didn't 'join up' the skirting around that step. The piece
above, just came as far as the stair edge and then stopped. Below
it there was a couple of inches gap, with the riser effectively
emerging straight out of the wall, and then below that the
skirting continued around the little turning square. A tiny, tiny,
stupid little 'detail', but it just leapt out you as NOT right
and constantly posed the question 'why on earth did they do that'?
With the amount of 'making good' I am faced with on that wall, it
seemed unavoidable that I'd just HAVE to put in the extra work in
removing the top section of skirting and then trying to mitre-in
a vertical graft. I did NOT want to have to remove the bottom
section from the wall and create even more work, so it meant
trying to cut the mitres in-situ, with the bottom section of
skirting still fixed to the wall!!! It knew it was going to be a
b*****d to do, and it's been one of the several reasons, I've
kinda 'stalled' in getting on with sorting that wall out and
finishing it off. . to cut a long, LONG story short, it didn't
go 'too' badly at all (I can't begin to say how many times I
measured up and had to walk ALL the way back up to the garage to
use the vice to carve just a little more off the new piece! Did a
LOT of walking today!) - which is just as well because I had to
use up my last little bit of spare skirting. Further skirting
alterations/repairs, of which there will be many, will require
making up and laboriously carving by hand, pieces of skirting out
of some plain timber, like I did for a section in one of the
bedrooms, because as far as I know, you can't buy any with that 'profile'
any longer. I admit to having a bit of an obsession about the
skirtings in this house. It's the fault of the survey I had done
when I bought the place. Ignoring some of the major structural
issues I've discovered since I moved in, the idiot surveyor
highlighted the fact that a couple of bits of wall had missing
skirtings here and there! That unfortunately sowed a seed in my
mind which does seem to have germinated! The kitchen is the only
place I can currently think of that has several areas completely
missing - although there are other areas in the house where odd
pieces of skirting have been joined together SO badly, I fully
intend (if I live long enough!) at some point (when decorating or
doing some other job) to remove and replace them to correct the
eyesore!!! . .eventually had the graft all fitting nice and tight
into the mitred lower skirting and around the protruding tread of
the stair, and decided I could get away with simply PVA gluing it
all back in place. With a bit of sanding and filler, I'll be
quite happy with the result. SO glad to have FINALLY got that
done! That silly little task took most of the day! Absurd! . .
cleaned up and then aimlessly PCd a bit . . ate Mum donated pizza,
a muffin and chocolate . . struggled to stay awake and to bed
before 11pm.
20 - Up around 7:15am. .drove to walk . did a
little 'litter duty' and mostly filled a carrier bag on the way
round. Amongst the rubbish I also picked up some bits of broken
glass (another vodka bottle I think). Messed-up cramming it in
the bin and somehow ended up slicing up a couple of my fingers.
Tiny little cuts and no big deal, only worthy of mentioning
because they bled quite a bit and bloody well wouldn't stop for
ages! Ended up sat on a seat smoking a blood soaked cigarette,
with two cigarette papers wrapped around my dripping fingers
acting as hopelessly ineffectual plasters! I imagine whoever
smashed that bottle would have had a jolly good laugh at me. Grrr.
. did dish washing chores (and ended up with blood stains on the
tea towel!). . Mum called in for chats etc. Spent ages showing
her Google's Streetview stuff, having a look at pretty much
everyones houses everywhere we could think of! . . ate pastry
slice, lettuce, crisps, chocolate . . TVd/PCd and only ate a
couple of bananas before finally to bed around 4am!
19 - Up around 6:45am. . briefly messed with the
car and tried 'the candle thing'. While looking for alternator
belt suppliers and prices etc a while ago, I bumped into various
videos on Youtube referring to squeeling belts and how to botch
them into being quite, prior to soon replacing them. One of the
videos suggested using candle wax on the edges of the belt.
Started the engine and held a candle against each side of the
belt before heading out. I don't think it made much if any
difference, although being daylight and not so cold, the load on
the alternator was much less than when it is usually squeeling so
I won't really know until some other time. I just need to get my
a** in gear and order one on the PC from somewhere! . drove to
walk to Sally's obvious delight. She managed to jump up into the
car ok but I insisted on trying to lift her out to save the
impact on her shoulder/leg. Difficult struggle to say the least.
She isn't used-to and doesn't like being carried. My back doesn't
like it much either! Misty/drizzley. I may be wrong, but would
you believe it - it looks to me as though someone has been out
and altered a few of the crab pot marker buoys by the yacht hut,
which only the other day I'd mentioned I thought had been
abandoned! Sadly whoever that may have been has NOT moved the pot
and buoy the seals were getting caught up in . . pretty much
ended up being a carbon copy of yesterday, just pointlessly
sitting around, TVing and guitarring a bit here and there. :o(
Feel as though I'm 'losing it a bit' at the moment! . . ate a tin
of sausages in baked bean, grated cheese, bread and butter and
then some chocolate . . napped until around 6pm . . PCd/guitarred
a bit . . TVd the rest of the evening away. . ate corned beef and
lettuce sandwiches with crisps and then more chocolate . . to bed
around 2am. s
18 - Up around 7:45am. .letting Sally out into
the garden I had a word with the neighbour and asked if he'd be
willing to arrange the car MOT attempt again. He said he would. .
finally - at some point in the morning, Sally availed herself of
the garden and had a poop! Thank goodness for that. Although she
is still in a bad way, there is 'intermitantly' the hint that she
may be oh SO slowly improving just slightly. I think I'm going to
have to just hold on and hope for the best . . guitarred/PCd a
bit but otherwise spent the whole day just sitting around feeling
very down and inwardly icey cold. :o( I really should be getting
on with 'house stuff' - replacement windows first really I guess,
but I'm 'avoiding' doing so because it means getting involved
with 'people'. Sacrificing myself to the sharks! It will
inevitably mean ending up with a load of hassle and ultimately a
crappy job and even more work for me to do! Oh - and an empty
bank account to boot of course! I'll get round to it eventually I
suppose - I have no choice - but it'll have to wait until I have
- um - 'the strength' to face it!! . . ended up very down. Bad
day. . . napped until 7pm . . ate 'dog food' pork and chips, a
banana, biscuits and chocolate . . TVd until bed around 1am.
17 - Up just before 7am - again! . . PCd a bit
of this . .no walk for Sally again I'm afraid. Tears at the heart
strings the way she stares at me expecting one. :o( I trust that
little snip of her at the end of the seal video, will not end up
being remembered by me as the last time she was capable of
running around like we did!. . gave the front lawn a quick once
over with the mower. My outside power socket works ok. :o) . .
left Sally at home and popped up the store for milk. Briefly
stopped in at Mums to let her know about Sally. . balanced my
accounts - FINALLY! I've been putting it off for months and had
gotten into a hell of a mess with all the bills, and stuff I've
been buying (shower, cable, etc, etc.). Took until early
afternoon just to do THAT!!! Wow - the car tax and MOT is due
already! Seems like only yesterday it was just done! :o( Hardly
used it since. . ate bacon and grated cheese in bread rolls and
some chocolate . . napped until the alarm at 7pm . . Tvd/guitarred/PCd
a bit . . ate bowls of co-co pops before bed around 2am.
16 - Up just before 7am again! I'm not sure how
on earth I'm gonna force her to just use the garden, because she
never wants to poop in it, but I rather think I won't be walking
Sally AT ALL for a while given the state she is in. :o( . . . PCd
- ALL day, working on the 'sealwatch' edits!! Jeeze the amount of
time I've put into this single video is just ridiculous! Having
said that, I was determined to make 'something' of it because of
FINALLY having got some half-decent footage of the seal, rather
than the few seconds of just glimpses I've ever managed to-date.
. frequently stopped to go check on Sally throughout. She really
is in a bad way - hardly able to walk on her leg at all. Having
steps up to the garden is not a help! I've closely examined and
manipulated her leg when she's laying down, and I can't see any
reason for her pain, nor illicite a reaction from her to any pain
my manipulations may have caused. It just seems as soon as she
tries to put weight on it, it must be hurting bad. :o( . . called
a halt to the mammoth editing session and uploaded the finished
video to youtube late afternoon. Glad to get that over and done
with. So - there we go then. I've 'done' the seal. :o) . . ate
corned beef, mayo, cheese and lettuce sandwichs, crisps and
chocolate and then lay down for a much needed late nap after 5pm
. . napped until the alarm at 7pm . . TVd/guitarred a bit . . ate
a microwave curry, crisps, biscuits and chocolate. . well - Sally's
managed to make it into the garden for at least a pee, but still
no sign of her pooping! By morning that's gonna be getting on for
two days (purely because she doesn't want to go in 'her' garden!)!!
If there is no sign of her limp improving over the next couple of
days of rest, I have a horrible feeling it may be time to go find
and register with a vet again! (The vet I registered with when we
moved down here suddenly closed - and I've not been to one since!)
Having said that, I'm pretty sure, expensive doses of 'metacam'
would be all that could be done for her. Oh dear. :o( s
15 - Up just before 7am! Clear blue sunny again.
:o) . PCd a bit of this . .walked. Sat on a seat chatting with
dog walkers, Sally started getting all bouncy and playing with
one of the dogs she fancies. Somehow during that play she
appeared to have damaged one of her front leg joints again!! The
next time I looked at her she was all limping really badly again
- worse than it was last week - although the other front leg this
time I think!!! VERY slow hobble home (with another carrier bag
of left overs meat from K)!!!!!!! . . I hadn't intended to (I
have SO many things that need work/sorting out - most pressing
all my paperwork, bills and accounts, etc) but ended up PCing all
day working on the seal video/music. After hours of work I pretty
much called it quits on what will be the music track. It isn't
brilliant, and isn't quite what I had in mind, but I think it isn't
bad. . headachey. Ate corned beef, lettuce and mayo sandwiches
with crisps and a little chocolate . . napped until around 6:30pm
. . carried on working at the PC. . poor Sally can really hardly
walk - no exaggeration!!!!!!!!!! Even just getting around in the
house seems to be incredibly difficult for her - and presumably
painful? :o( . . .finally took a break from the PC around 11pm.
Despite having the music track all ready to go (just a repeating
loop able to be extended or reduced, whichever is required) , it's
gonna take many hours more trying to edit all that footage into
something worth watching - for 'seal lovers only' of course. lol
:o( I hate to admit it, but I'm getting a little sick of looking
at video of seal! lolololol . . ate pizza, half a buttered golden
syrup cake and chocolate and TVd for a bit . .to bed around 1am. aa
14 - Up just before 8am. Very sunny again. :o) .
. walked and picked up loads of broken glass, bottles, litter,
etc from the vicinity of the lower gun emplacements (after of
course having given the coves and coastline a good scour for any
signs of seal!). Found a lighter, three pennies and someones
purse with nothing of any value in it except for a student ID
card. Lumbered myself with another chore - handing that in
sometime, somwhere. .funny day. Almost everyone out on the
streets was carrying flowers. lol . guitarred with a coffee in
the front garden for a bit. Really like a summers day in the
morning, in that little sheltered sun trap. I SO need some more
of that, to try and shake off that weird inner cold I've been
ground down by these last few months! Even when I'm sweating I
kinda feel cold inside somehow. In the shower or under a duvet is
the only time I can get anywhere near feeling properly warm. .walked
with Sally up Mums with the flowers to say happy mothers day and
all that. Stopped for a quick coffee and chat and ended up
popping her new hose end on her hosepipe, because she couldn't
remember how to pop off the hoselock fitting. Quickly pulled out
of the ground, by hand, a small half-dead conifer she suggested
could go 'in the future'. Why wait? . Mum'd recently got rid of
an old, old cassette tape type ansaphone - after having made sure
she removed the tapes as I'd suggested. Turns out there were a
couple of old (ten years or so?)_ messages still on the tape!!
Listened to some of it. Really weird to hear me sounding 'alive-ish'
talking about some curtains I'd bought, and about going up on the
roof (in Bristol) to attempt to take down the big amateur radio
aerial. And there was Dad - and Uncle TJ playing even older
recordings down the phone of Grandma etc etc etc. All very weird.
All kinda made me think how all rather futile everything had been,
and/or, is! :o| . . as I was leaving I noticed her lower garden
gate hinge had finally given up the ghost and snapped in half! .
. dug out the hinges from my old garden shed door, which I'd hung
on to when I got rid of it, and walked back up Mums and without 'too'
much hassle managed to fit them both to her gate as second rate
replacements. Worked out ok . . cooked and ate four sausages,
chips and onion gravy with two pieces of bread and butter . . PCd
briefly before intending to nap, but got all bogged down for ages
on Google maps looking at 'Streetview' stuff. They've recently
opened up most of the rest of the country, and I was intrigued to
know if Sally and I may be on there down by BGdns, since we saw
the camera car when walking there one day. We were not. Of course
I then had to have a look at my house (hell you can see the CCTV
camera and read the name on the gate as clear as day! All my
curtains were shut so must have been early in the morning), Mums,
and a bunch of other stuff. (It was all recored a while ago now -
for instance back before Mr Bs house was burned down. Spooky
seeing that still stood there intact!) It really is utterly
amazing to be able to travel around via the PC like that. Of
course I ended up finally being able to have a look at where I
used to live back in Bristol. Possible to zoom in on the house
from almost right outside. Although blurred out - I was quite
able to recognise one of the neighbours (although since back then
has moved away apparantly)!!! I suddenly got all overcome with a
bit of tearfulness looking at the old house like that. Hardly a
piece of it doesn't still - um - 'bear my mark' as it were. I put
the paint on the gate and the whole front. I put up the PIR and
outside light. I re-pointed the bay roof. I rebuilt and painted
the chimney pot. I put up that big TV aerial! etc, etc, etc. The
list goes on. It hurts. It always will. THAT house will always be
a bigger part of me than this one EVER could be. I STILL don't
feel 'at home' here. I suspect I will never feel that way ever
again. It hurts. It always will. . lay down to nap but couldn't.
Got back up and PCd a bit of this. .
. . guitarred/TVd . . touched base with Mum . . ate bowls of co-co
pops and a couple of Mum donated iced-doughnut things . .
aimlessly PCd until around 2am before bed. s
13 - Up around 7:30am. Very sunny. . . walked
and made a bee line for the cove, and sat around overlooking the
water for quite a while. No sign of any seal this morning. Boy,
is that beach in a mess! Covered in all manner of rubbish, washed
in by the bad weather. . back for more sits in BGdns before
heading home. . just about to go inside when M, a dog walker
neighbour called out. He'd just been on a short break and he'd
brought some duty free tobacco back. Did I want any Golden
Virginia. HELL, YES PLEASE!!! I JUMPED at the chance! . . left
Sally at home and raced down town to draw some money out and buy
a token bunch of flowers for Mum for tomorrows mothers day. .
scored a nice big, deep frying pan in a charity shop for £1. It's
actually a little tatty looking, but it has 'most' of its non
stick stuff intact, and even had a lid! The one I use is SO old
and battered, when I wash it, the inside of the pan actually goes
rusty! I will be VERY glad to throw that one away, and not be
eating so much rust! :o) . . popped up and gave £39 for the 500g
of tobacco. Wow that is SO cheap!! Almost a third the price I've
been paying in Sainsburys. :o) Not really knowing anyone - being
the hermit I am, is actually bizarrely an expensive lifestyle!
Imagine being one of those people who knows everyone - and how
cool it would be to be able to source all that cheap stuff people
are into all over the place. :o( . . .guitarred in the sun in the
garden for a bit. Oh boy, we could use a bit more of THIS weather.
First time this year it's really started to feel a bit warmer.
This must have been the hardest winter I've ever experienced (or
certainly since back when I was around 18 and more able to cope
with such cold!) . . Mum called in with food donations for chats
and to watch videos etc. . ate ham rolls, crisps and chocolate .
. napped. Forgot to set the alarm and incredibly didn't wake
until around 10pm!!!!!!!!!!!!! Damn - that's me gonna be all
nocturnal all of a sudden! damn damn damn. . . PCd/guitarred the
night away, actually working on editing down lots of seal footage
to a guitar twiddle. Not sure I can actually finish that, because
I'm not overly happy with the quality of the 'twiddle', and
really can't face the prospect of putting in days trying to
perfect a recording of it. Shame - it is just a little bit 'song'
like in nature, although I have absolutely no intention
whatsoever of trying to put words to it . . ate a Mum donated
pastry slice, crisps and biscuits before back to bed for a few
hours just before 5am.
12 - Up around 6:30am. . walked with spare
batteries, camera and tripod - just in case the seal were about.
// T
ended up spending a good couple of hours (all morning pretty much!)
watching and filming from the cliff overlooking the cove.
// eventually walked the long way back via the woods . Just
missed two lifeboat coming in! One
from Plymouth and another from somewhere else. They both cruised
into the marina and moored up alongside the local one. Would have
made for a good photo opportunity, but I just couldn't be
bothered to walk all the way down there . . drank a glass of red
wine while cooking four sausages and chips. Ate with a mug of
onion gravy followed by biscuits and chocolate . . napped . .
guitarred . . PCd a very small bit of the mass of footage I took
from this morning and knocked up the 'seal watch' video showing
their bizarre and oh SO dangerous behaviour with the crab pot
marker buoy. Somebody SO needs to remove that damned thing! There
are several in the vicinity which I haven't seen anyone go out
and tend to for months. They may have done of course, but there
are a line of them by the yacht-club hut which are now all
covered in seaweed and such, suggesting that they ARE pretty much
abandoned! Bloody death traps! . . Ate cornflakes before
eventually to bed around 3am. s
11 - Up around 6:15am. . PCd a bit of this . .
walked. As I did the usual route, being pretty familiar with 'things'
by now, something caught my eye and looked a bit weird about the
crab pot marker buoy in the cove. (It's been there quite a while
now - and I HAVE had occasion to wonder if it's been washed in
there by the bad weather. Doesn't seem to be the usual place for
such a thing.) As I watched, something was definitely in the
water around it and it started to look to me as though it was a
seal. I even saw the whole thing pretty much pulled under the
waves at one point! Something not right. It started to look to me
as though the seal may well have been caught up in the rope! As I
began to pull my camera out of my pocket to zoom in and get a
closer look, I expressed my concerns to a passing dog walker and
we both kept watch for a while. Eventually the seal surfaced
again and sure enough, it WAS all wrapped up in rope!!!!! Oh NO!!!!!!
What to do? I DID have my mobile in my pocket as always, but no
way was there aenough battery left to even attempt to call anyone.
The dog walker had her mobile with her and suggested I use that,
since she was close to tears and wouldn't be able to. It was
agreed (despite it really being totally inappropriate!), that I
would go ahead and dial 999 and ask for the coastguard. I got
through to the call handler and explained (apologising profusely
for having called the emergency number!) and suggested that all
that was needed was maybe for the ILB to be called out, with
someone onboard with a sharp knife! The call handler said it was
unlikely they'd come out because no 'people' were involved, and
as I recall it, that was pretty much that (although I am
embrrassed to admit I did attempt to make some bizarre comment
that it was 'man' who'd put it into that state so 'we' should
sort it out!) . Despite what he'd said, I assumed that 'someone'
WOULD respond. . I raced down to the nearer cove, up the oh SO
steep slope, and eventually down the path through the woods to
take up an overlooking position just off the path on the cliffs.
(Thankfully Sally seems to have recovered from her bad leg and
limp, and kept up a good pace.) I set up my camera and kept a
close watch, specifically on the buoy, waiting for the seal to
reappear for what seemed like an agonisingly VERY long time! At
least two other seal were swimming and splashing about, but
within fifteen minutes after having not seen any further trace of
the roped seal, or any significant movement of the buoy, I was
absolutely convinced it had drowned. Horrible feeling of utter
helplessness and sorrow. . after having kept watch for almost an hour
and used up most of my camera battery, and having seen no further
trace of the seal, given that it looked as though no one was
being called out as a result of my phone call, I got back on the
path and started to leave. I hesitated at several points and kept
looking back and would you believe it - just then the roped seal
reappeared!! Grabbed my camera and attempted to zoom in on it
once again to have a closer look. Definitely still wrapped in the
rope! . It really was agonising to watch! It wasn't there for
long before slipping back beneath the surface and out of sight.
Given what the call handler had said, and assuming after so much
time had elapsed that no one actually was coming out, I figured I
just HAD to try and get some help for it again! I made my way
back up the cliff path and back down to the nearby Brixham
Holiday Park and rushed into the reception office hoping they may
have some useful phone numbers (the harbourmaster being uppermost
in my mind). After hearing my explanation of things, the helpful
receptionist didnt hesitate in assisting by calling the
RSPCA. A collection officer was on his way. .That was all well
and good but it seemed to me pretty unlikely they'd have a boat,
which was going to be absolutely necessary! Ummd and ahhd a bit
before deciding to make haste in the direction of the harbour. My
plan was either I could get the harbourmaster interested, or
failing that, I even dabbled with the idea of perhaps trying to
bribe some fisherman with a boat in the inner harbour to come out!!
. . ran to the harbourmasters office
. The harbourmaster did not hesitate. As soon as I explained, he
got straight on the phone presumably mobilising his troops.
. ran back . . watched with the dog
walker. She'd apparantly also made calls and had mobilised BDMLR
whoever they were . . Sure enough, within half an hour the
harbourmaster had a boat and two man crew on scene.
They hauled up the buoy, the yards of rope, and even the pot
beneath, and - found nothing!
there was absolutely no trace of it!
Huh? That's SO weird. What the hell to make of that? The dog
walker spoke with the British
Divers Marine Life Rescue
people on her mobile and had them stand down and pretty soon
wandered off. I get the impression she had (naively/optimisticaly?)
concluded the seal had freed itself and all was ok? I began to
doubt in my own mind what I may or may not have 'thought' I saw!!
Surely I didn't imagine the whole thing, or overreact to
something that just 'looked' like a seal caught in rope!? I felt
awfully guilty! I ended up sat on the rocks for quite a while
longer just scanning the whole area looking for any signs of
anything moving anywhere in the water. There was nothing! Pretty
soon a young guy appeared on the path above and said hello.
Turned out to be an RSPCA collection officer. To his credit, that
really was pretty quick. I explained what I 'thought' had
happened and offered embarrassed apologies for having called him
out for what turned out to be nothing! He had a good peer around
for himself but pretty soon headed off and I figured enough was
enough and I slowly followed him up the path - frequently looking
back at the water as I did. . as I walked back down the long path
towards the holiday camp, K appeared in the distance. He feels
the cold quite a bit and was all wrapped up in multiple layers
and wooly hat and was heading off on the arduous climb up and
down to the beach. He'd heard from other dog walkers I'd spoken
to as I'd run to the harbourmasters office, that a seal was in
trouble tied up with rope. Without hesitation, there he was
setting off to see if he could help, with a six inch+, razor
sharp kitchen knife openly held in his hand! :o) He really IS a 'salt
of the earth' kinda guy. He REALLY is! Quite moving I found that.
. detoured into the holiday camp office to let the receptionist
know the bizarre outcome of the drama and to thank her for her
help . . raced home to get straight on the PC and check the
camera, to see if I HAD actually recorded any of the seal, to
prove I hadn't imagined the whole thing or been mistaken by some
seaweed or some such!!. . I HAD managed to record just a glimpse
or two!!!! There goes the day then - I couldn't help myself - I
just HAD to make a video out of it, just to prove I hadn't
imagined it and to ease my conscience about having wasted so many
peoples time like that! Called it quits and uploaded it to
Youtube around 5pm. Emailed a couple of the people concerned with
the link - an apology to the harbourmaster (actually included an
admission and apology and Youtube link about calling them out for
the floating drum back on 19th December too - assuring them I was
NOT a serial hoaxer!), a line to the RSPCA to attempt to 'justify'
having called them out for nothing, and the same to whoever those
'British
Divers Marine Life Rescue'
people are who the dog walker had been in touch with. I've
actually never heard of them before to my knowledge. I had no
idea such people existed! Marvellous. I think I need to load up
my mobile phone with their, and several other useful phone
numbers - and charge the bloody battery more often!!!! Horrible,
horrible, horrible day that's going to remain in my mind much!
Poor animal - what suffering! :o( . . guitarred/TVd. . ate pizza
and chocolate. . to bed at midnight. s
10 - Up around 7:25am to the sounds of the
binmen . . walked and returned with yet more meat for the freezer
from K . . did bed linen laundry and out on the line to dry in
the sun. . PCd/guitarred a bit, but once again somehow just
wasted the day away. After all that recent 'keeping busy doing
stuff on the house', I seem to have descended into a down, where
I really just can't bring myself to do anything at all, because
it all seems just so utterly futile!! :o( . . . eventually ate
huge amounts of beef in bread rolls followed by chocolate
biscuits . . too late for a nap (and I hadn't put the washed
sheets etc back on the bed yet) so drove to walk a little early.
Ended up sitting around for ages listening to the scanner as
darkness closed in. It appeared that a fishing boat ('Lone Wolf')
had lost power somewhere and the lifeboat had been called out to
tow it safely back into harbour. I DID dabble with the camera,
but it was too dark to film anything by the time they got in.
Also on the radio I picked up a couple of brief transmissions
from a Lynx helicopter out of Yeovilton, apparantly doing a live
air-to-surface fire excercise, presumably on one of the ranges
somewhere. I haven't a clue where those ranges are. Must be a
long way out to sea. You NEVER actually hear or see anything from
them. . pretty chilly by the time I returned around 8pm . .
guitarred/TVd another night away . . ate chocolate and half a Mum
donated, buttered syrup cake . . to bed before midnight. a
9 - Woke earlier, snoozed on then up around 8am
. . walked. I half woke with cramp in my left calf in the night.
This morning my leg was really painful and both Sally AND I ended
up limping along to BGdns!! lol Exchanged words with a dog walker
who, as it turns out, is another to have recently lost her dog. :o(
Filmed a little (nothing worth the effort as it turns out) and I
swear the sea actually calmed down even more than it already had,
as I watched. . . PCd and finished off the 'hungry dog' video and
uploaded it to Youtube around midday. Weird thing is - Youtube
copyright breach info suggests it has been blocked in a list of
countries big enough to fill my screen - i.e. ALL of them,
including the UK!! Despite that, it 'appears' to be still
watchable (and there are plenty of other peoples with the same
soundtrack still up there)???? You never know where you stand
with the damn things any more. .guitarred just a little . . .sanded
down plaster and then spent hours trying to vacuum and clean up
the dust from everywhere . . PCd a bit feeling increasingly
headachey and down . . TVd . . ate Mum donated meat feast pizza
with extra meat and cheese followed by chocolate . . almost fell
asleep on the sofa! . . to bed around midnight. a
8 - Up around 6:45am by some noise or other . .
Sally appears to be 'somewhat' improved, so I dared to walk her
to BGdns rather than drive. Clear blue and sunny but a b****y
cold easterly wind again! Sea was still frisky, and with my cheap
light old tripod crammed in my outer jacket pocket, I was tempted
into filming for a bit as the pilot boat went out. The footage
still ended up being all jerky because of the wind blowing me
around! :o( . . PCd the video (the plaster on the wall is still
drying!) , and couldn't resist knocking up an upload out of it -
cause - well - people seem to like boats and waves don't they. Me
included! lol. . piddled with the guitar in all the 'compile'
downtime, and didn't get it finished and uploaded to Youtube
until mid afternoon for goodness sake! . . ate K donated pork,
microwaved with chips followed by a square or two of chocolate .
. napped . . guitarred/TVd/PCd the evening away. . ate a pack of
kipling slices . . PCd dabbling with a video until bed around 3am.
7 - Up around 7am by seagull noise again . .
drove to walk. The forecast had been for a glorious sunny day.
When walking it was mostly cloudy and absolutely freezing in the
strong easterly wind! It did brighten up later but hardly rose
above around 4 degrees all day! Didn't hang around and soon
headed back. Noticed the makeshift 'flag' was up for me outside
Ks, so awkwardly reversed the car into his driveway and called at
the door for the big lump of beef left overs he had for Sally . .
PCd/guitarred a bit . . eventually put a bit of plaster onto the
landing wall, trying to average things out a bit and at the very
least, disguise the scar from where the old picture rail used to
be. Most of what I put on is gonna have to be sanded back off I
think! :o( . . ate corned beef sandwiches and oxtail soup, a
banana and a little chocolate . . napped until gone 6pm . .
guitarred/TVd struggling to stay warm. . K called in on his way
home from work with a big plastic bag of left over meat. . ate a
cold plate of K donated 'dog food' meat with much salt and four
pieces of bread and butter followed by a little chocolate . .TVd/aimlessly
PCd until early before eventually to bed.
6 - Up around 7:45am actually woken by the
sounds of the flat metal roof over the bay window expanding in
the morning sun. .drove to walk. The clear blue sky and sun was
misleading - I left off a layer and was utterly frozen in the
cold northerly wind and frosty shadows of BGdns . . guitarred in
the sun in the front garden for a bit. . did laundry and dish
washing chores until Mum arrived with the paper and food
donations for a coffee and chats . . ate Mum donated sausage
rolls, crisps, banana, kipling slices and chocolate . . napped .
. TVd/guitarred all evening . . ate turkey and lettuce rolls,
kipling slices and chocolate . . to bed around 1am. s
5 - Up around sunrise at 6:45am . .drove to
walk after scraping ice off the windscreen. Sally is still
limping really badly, although at times when out for a walk you
wouldn't know it!! The silly dog was still up for having a romp
and a play with another dog at one point, and undoubtedly
aggravated her condition for later. . coffee and cigarettes in
the sun in the front garden . .popped up the builders yard for
supplies of filler and sandpaper (£5.90). . scraped paint all
day. Hateful filthy, boring work with far too much time to think
and feel miserable! What an utter, utter pointless mess I've made
of my life! . . With the beautiful weather, I actually found
myself in the mood to be walking through the woods, but of course
I can't do that now because of Sally's condition. :o( . . I think
that is more or less all the scraping done. Now it's a case of
trying to figure out what way is best to smooth and level the
wall and make it good enough to be decorated. It's a dilema. It
appears the framework the wall is fixed to is actually not
straight, hence the noticeable uneveness of it in different
places. No matter what I try to do, it isn't going to look flat.
:o( It really WOULD make more sense to take it all down and re-plasterboard
it, but I'm absolutely not going to do that! Pain in the ***! I'm
sick and tired of spending so much time messing around with such
a small bit of nonsense. . vacuumed and cleaned myself up late
afternoon/early evening. I ate far too much yesterday and
bizarrely as a result, didn't feel particularly in need of food
at all today!? . . PCd briefly, TVd but mostly guitarred the
evening away . . ate just a few bowls of corn flakes and much
chocolate before eventually to bed before 1am.s
4 - Up around 7:45am . . PCd reading the local
news site . .drove to walk poor Sally. Actually managed to lift
her into the back of the car on the way out but she isn't good at
being lifted, and frankly is far too heavy to make a habit of it.
My back definitely suffered as a result. Managed to poorly lift
her out and did a slightly curtailed walk in the freezing wind.
She seems happy enough despite limping badly. That's the trouble
with dogs, they haven't the sense to know when they should take
it easy, and will happily charge around and make things worse for
later! !. . scraped paint from the landing wall for several hours
until mid afternoon. Ended up feeling thoroughly miserable . .
ate the last of the lasagne . . napped until the alarm at 7pm . .
skipped the walk . . guitarred/TVd . . ate mum donated pizza and
chocolate. . to bed around 1am. s
3 - Woken by the noise of the binmen and up
around 8:20am. Uggh. I'm tired! Bang goes today then?. . walked
late. Not long after setting off, Sally did her usual detour and
scent-mark pee on a raised grass verge. Jumping back down onto
the pavement like usual, somehow she landed wrong and ended up
limping pretty bad from her front leg (actually her shoulder I
think)!!! . . A brisk, cold easterly wind, picking the sea up a
bit. Stayed in BGdns longer than I'd intended, filming a little
for the first time in ages. The pilot boat had gone out to a
moored ship and was transferring people aboard via a ladder.
Looked incredibly dangerous to me, what with the waves and all,
but I guess it's all in a days work for them. Without the tripod
and on maximum zoom, it was all rather a shaky, wasted effort,
and I pretty soon ran out of battery anyway. Having said that,
given I've not even pulled the camera out of my pocket for ages,
I was actually quite impressed the battery lasted as long as it
did. .ended up frozen! Slowly walked back with Sally limping even
worse, after having layed on the cold ground for ages while I
filmed . . worked on completing the outdoor socket box project. I'd
bought a new tube of silicon sealant while I was down town the
other day, but suprisingly it turned out the remains of some
really old stuff I'd stowed away in the garage at least a year or
more ago, was still useable! I'd put a plastic bag over the open
end and then replaced the cleaned out screw-on nozzle, over the
top of the bag, in the hope of keeping it sealed and useable
again. Seems to have worked a treat . . put dabs of silicon around the socket box
screw mounting holes, and around the potruding bit of through-the-wall-conduit
where it entered the box, and eventually had the thing fixed to
the wall about as weatherproof as it could possibly ever be. .
spent the next several hours modifying the ring main and actually
wiring everything up to the fused isolating switch on the newly
painted bit of wall by the front door. (Even 'looped' the ring
through the blanked box next to the switch, so when I finally
decide what I'm going to use it for, it'll be quick and easy to
wire it up.) Time consuming, but as always, very satisfying to
actually bring into use a new socket box (switch) after all the
aggro actually cutting it in etc. - and particularly so on this
occasion because of having had to 'rebuild' AND twice repaint
that section of botched wall in the process!! . . all done,
tested, working and tidied up by around 3pm. I haven't really
familiarised myself with that RCD socket yet, and don't 'really'
understand how it works, but I get the impression it isn't really
designed to have the mains supply turned off like I've installed
it. When the mains is switched on, there seems to be some sort of
capacitor type thing inside it which needs to charge up for a few
seconds before you then have to go out to it and press the RCD
reset button before it will supply power to the actual sockets.
Fair enough for garden power tools etc because you'll be out
there plugging them in anyway, but NOT good if for example you
just want to turn on your already plugged in Xmas lights from
inside the house! lol Oh well - humbug! . . ate a medium
sized bowl of lasagne and some chocolate . . napped for a couple
of hours until around 6:15pm . . Sally's bad limp has predictably
gotten even worse having layed around all day!!! I guess I won't
be walking her for a while! Poor OLD dog. Worrying. :o( . . no
more excuses. I've GOT to start scraping down the paint from that
butchered wall at the top of the stairs! Dared to put in an hour
of scraping from around 8pm - but imposed a strict 9pm curfew on
myself for the neighbours sake. Made a 'bit' of a dent in the
chore. Actually - maybe doing a bit at a time is a good idea. It's
real unpleasant and tiring. The down side of that is all the mess
everwhere. Seems pointless clearing it all up if it's gonna
happen again in a few hours tomorrow - which means the bits of
scraped off paint end up being trod all over the house -
everywhere! :o( . . PCd a bit of this . . TVd/ate bacon, eggs,
baked beans and bread and butter around midnight before finally
to bed. a
2 - Up at 6:30am. .walked . .sanded down my
messed-up paint on the stub wall by the front door and got a coat
of the new emulsion on it. That new paint is SO much better than
the old stuff I've been using. The old stuff I'm sure was the
cheapest you can buy, and really was like water! That may well
account for a few of the problems I've had when using it. The new
stuff is from the 'middle' of the price range, and is noticeably
thicker and better. Definitely worth the extra on this occasion.
. sunny with some dry weather forecast (and avoiding having to
start the chore of scraping old paint from the patched/landing
wall), set about starting the work to fix the outside socket box
to the bay wall. It was bound to create some damage to the
outside wall when I eventually broke through, but for various
valid reasons, I drilled from under the floor - out! (Very cool
being able to do the drilling work under there in reasonable
light without the need for torches etc, and with an old extension
lead permanently resident down there, all ready to go.) Didn't go
'too' badly because of the incredibly weak dusty mortar between
the bricks. How on earth are these houses still standing?!! . had
to use the disc cutter to grind off a bit of the painted outside
wall, to be able to get a decent flat surface to mount the box on.
Unlike when I did the light in the back garden, and just drilled
a hole and poked the wire through, on this occasion I determined
to do a 'proper' job, and actually cemented a piece of slightly
protruding plastic conduit in through the bricks and across the
cavity. Had to stop to let the PVA/cement go off, and ended up
TVing and eating a HUGE bowl of lasagne followed by some
chocolate. Big mistake. That pretty much finished me off for the
day! Immediately had to go lie down - although I did just manage
to slap on some masonary paint to the bit of outside wall before
I did . . napped for a couple of hours only to wake feeling
really blah and still oh SO tired . . drove to walk feeling not
quite right or awake . . vaccuumed some of the layers of white
dust from the sanding down this morning. TVd/PCd (surfing windows/radiators/footstools/alternator
belts/shower curtain rails, etc, etc!) eventually waking up as
the night wore on - and the lasagne overdose wore off?! . ate a
banana, pork pie, crisps and chocolate biscuits. Finally to bed
around 4am or later! a
1 - Up around 6:45am . . PCd a bit of this. I'm
gonna have to sit down and tot it all up properly at some point,
but it looks as though that shower project (so far - I need to
buy some sealant etc to finish off) has cost me somewhere up
around £180 to do - although of course I have lots of insulation
and fittings and such left over for future projects - and a good
£15 or more of that was wasted on my aborted soldering attempt.
That's not 'too' bad, considering I had to start from scratch is
it? Aside from the actual shower, the biggest chunk of that was
the heavy duty cable! . . walked. Beautiful morning, rapidly
warming up in the sun from the zero it was when I got up. . .
left Sally at home and drove to the diy store (10Kg of one coat
plaster, 10ltrs white emulsion paint, pack of sandpaper all for
£28.16) and then Sainsburys for tobacco (5x50g Golden Virginia
for £59.10) and food supplies (£58.92). Just that took the
whole morning! . . walked with Sally down town to withdraw some
cash and to tour the charity shops. Scored a plain black, 'Cedarwood
State', XL zip-up hooded fleece for £5. Still had remnants of
the original tickets on, so I guess has never even been worn.(Actually
had a look on-line while typing this. Turns out it's a 'Primark'
item, and probably wasn't all that expensive to begin with. Still
- well worth a fiver I reckon.) . ate ham rolls, crisps and
chocolate. Should have 'got on with stuff', but as soon as the
food hit I HAD to go sleep, and didn't wake until around 6pm! . .
felt very blah and unsettled. Skipped the walk. . felt guilty
about having done nothing on the house all day, but too late now
and not fair on the neighbours to start making lots of noise
scraping etc. . With a big new tub of emulsion from the diy store
earlier, I ended up under the floor painting some of the walls I've
already 'smoothed', just to get that out of the way and done with.
Very much brighter down there now. Still lots of walls I haven't
tended to, but really very little point in putting any more
effort (and paint £!) into that I think. . TVd . . cooked and
ate bacon, eggs, baked beans and bread and butter . . to bed
around midnight.
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