Day: May 11, 2011

My mum’s arthritis is making the whole clicky mouse job on the computer a bit of a pain. Literally. In fact, having finally managed to find a use for the computer (she’s learning French), she now can’t actually use it because it hurts too much.

I was thinking iPad, but 300 spondoolics is quite a lot of spondoolics for her. However, I’ve seen cheaper Android based tablet computers (specifically the SuperPad 2 AKA Flytouch 3) and that would probably be ‘good enough’ for her needs.

Also, they handle flash, alledgedly.

Anyone got any experience with the beasties?

So, near to us is Bristols Wood Recycling Project from where we endeavour to obtain lots of wood. It’s not really a hardship as it is, for the most part, incredibly cheap. And we like using reclaimed timber. They have some lovely cupboard doors in at the moment, from a science lab. Sadly not enough to make a kitchen.

They also will cut and plane wood for you, although they don’t make any furniture…yet. Although that’s apparently something they’re working on. Anyhow, we wanted a bench for the kitchen, as I might have mentioned. I incorrectly referred to it as glulam, it’s actually laminated strand board. Now, we have, sort-of got the facilities to cut this. Namely, we have a saw. However a big chunk of timber like this, well, it’s going to take a while to cut and cutting it straight would tax my feeble timber skills. Especially given the absence of a workbench, or anything like that.

Anyhow, they cut it down for us. We, however, get the joy of sanding it so I suspect what we’ve saved in buying it as reclaimed timber may well get used as sand-paper purchase funds.

But, having lugged it out of the minor, I couldn’t wait to get a feel for how it’ll look. It’ll be going in the alcove where the kitchen currently is… but the fridge is there at the moment, and also, we’ll be having lots of work done in there. So instead, I stuck it against one of the few completely finished walls (apart from the bonding/filling) in the lounge:

While I like the finish you get on the top:

It’s the edges I really get quite excited about:

Also, the end grain. But we’ve not got any bits that are end-grain-y yet. We’d like to make it U shaped, and may well go and buy a bit extra to do so. But we were a bit…well..a bit too nervous to go ahead and buy that much in one go.

I’m given to understand that it will suck up whatever we use to finish it (I’m guessing varnish, so as to quietly fill in the gaps a bit). But ooooh. I’m quite excited to see it now :)

Also, I got my hair cropped. For the first time I tried the clippers – in a unisex barber. It’s weird going to a barber. I’m so used to being gently mollycoddled and my little Indian head massages. Today I got my hair cut, and for the first time in my life someone used a straight razor on me. I’ve never been so still in all my life. A little bit of my brain was screaming: “It’s a knife. On my skin!”. The advantage of this was it only cost a tenner, and my hair looks largely the same as it did after the (half price at) 20 quid hair cut I got last time. And it makes me think, hey, I could use the clippers that we bought, when we uncover them from the storage unit. I mean, I thought we could, but we actually *could*.

Also, I found an espresso machine in Bedminster’s BHF Charity shop… for a fiver. Discounted from ten quid. My mum’s been wanting one for a while, and I’ve wanted one too. I’m going to ‘test’ it until we can take it down to my mums. Yes, it’s probably 2 bar or somesuch. It’s a Russell Hobbs 3335′ thing from the late…80s? It’s got that white plastic and colours thing going…and I remember my parents having one very similar in the early 90s.

While it’s got a couple of bits of dirt on it from age, it actually looks essentially unused. The filter basket looks brand new and peering into the water tank it looks nice and clean. Optimistically, then, I paid a fiver and hopefully will be running it down to my mum’s in a while.

I’m looking forward to buying a nice tamping gidget and a stainless steel pitcher (and thermometer, since I’ve not done this before) when I get my coffee tomorrow.

So, we have a pseudo-date for the builders, after a false start we’re off again with ‘next week’. It’s been next week for three weeks, but the builders realised that in discussions we’d not really considered the fact that the windowsill in the kitchen was, well, just below the level of the worksurface. Level with I could have handled, but just below is not really great. Fortunately, they thought of this before ordering the window.

So they came back, re-measured, and have now ordered a window. The day before it comes they’re intending to come in and whip the wall up, and the other wall down, ready to put it in. Then the beam comes…and the scary bit of the other wall coming down is go.

I have to say I have awesome respect for wibble who appears to cope much better with the much, much larger building project she’s involved in. I suppose it’s a bit different when you’re only going to be in the place for a few years at most. Anyway, the frustration’s not been good – and it’s not aided at the moment at my general frustration. Specsavers have been spectacularly crap, their ‘urgent’ order is supposedly going to arrive on Sunday, a mere 3 weeks after it was placed.

I’m dubious as to the likelyhood of it arriving on Sunday, and yet again get the delight of wearing my contacts for nearly 24 hours on Saturday when I switch to nights, because they’ve failed to actually deliver any of their promises. Thankfully I ordered a month’s worth of contacts, otherwise I’d’ve had to be off sick or go and spend over 200 on glasses again. Although, actually? The cost difference between specsavers and anyone else rapidly goes down if you have ‘thinned’ lenses (because you’re blind like me).

Still, hopefully they’ll come and I can stop struggling with the lenses. I actually like the lenses for distance vision and comfort they’re fine. But for reading they’re a bloody nightmare, and either one or other seems to wander in and out of focus a bit, depending on how tired I am. Indeed, the astigmatic eye is a complete disaster a lot of the time. I think it’s really that one that screws the lenses for me. If I wasn’t such an avid reader / didn’t have to do close work at work they’d be fine :-/

Anyhow, the chaos in the house continues. Neither Kathryn nor I really has the energy to face ‘tidying’ when in 2 weeks we’ll be moving back downstairs again. Make that 3 weeks. The window delivery has slipped again. Although, apparently our builder has, somewhat peeved at the delay turned around and got it moved nearer because the window suppliers screwed up and wanted 15 instead of 10 days to produce the windows.

So, Thursday next week he’ll turn up.

Whilst the delay is frustrating, I am on nights, so it’s actually good that I might get some sleep, because having them destroy the walls will probably not be ‘quiet’.

What is good, though, is that we’ve finally got a plasterer. And a plasterer who we like and have a recommendation for. Who looked at the job and didn’t try and cut all the corners before he’d even started. Hopefully his work’s as good as his recommendation.

And the floor refinishers are lined up for after the plasterer. I have this faint, but undenyable hope that it’s going to come together and we’ll have a nice house soon. After 5 years of renovation in 2 houses I might actually relax and enjoy it for a bit :)

Work, on the other hand continues to play on my mind as something I’m not sure what I should do about it. I don’t feel I’ve settled in there the way I did in my last trust; although it is improving. But then, just when I think I’m making friends, a bunch of people leave. People I like working with. Mainly, in fact, a lot of the people who joined around the same time as me. Which has left me feeling quite down, really. I’m not very good at making friends, it’s not something I have great aptitude for, at least, I make friends but it takes me a long time and they tend to be *good* friends. But the whole ‘social’ thing kinda evades me. People have to put up with my poor social abilities long enough and I kinda end up making friends in some shared experience way. Anyhow.

Yeah, so losing people from work who I’ve started to make little tenuous connections with is frustrating and depressing. Meh. Still, ‘ve made one new friend since moving back to Bristol. Which is good :)

In other news, I’ve been playing with instagram, which is cute and makes me do things like this:

And we grew dinner (well, mostly Kathryn grew dinner. My MSc is interfering with Gardening, and we all know which is more important):

Well, okay, we grew the salad we’re having with dinner… It was *yummy* and so very fresh. Which isn’t surprising really, given that Kathryn picked it about 20 minutes before we ate it.

Anyhow, I need to do a bit of ‘group work’ for my MSc and I also need a bath after my run this morning (2.42 miles, not too shabby for my second run in 2 years)… So.