Category: General

So, I’m trying to locate energy to work on the house, this would be easier if…well… if the house weren’t worth less than the money I’ve put into it. That’s pretty disheartening. To look around and think of the money that’s been poured in, and I know that had I not done that it’d be worth less than I paid for it, but to think of the money that came from my dad’s death and consider the possibility that I may not get it back.

That’s upsetting. Frustrating. That was my Canada money. That was my get me out of this country and settle in another land money.

*sighs*

Which is why it’s frustrating. The house is liveable, and spending time on it at the moment is hard to find enthusiasm for. Which is stupid, because it would be nicer if the jobs were done, it’d be nice if the lounge doors were stripped and painted. It’d be nicer if the bathroom floor were finished and all the sealant were done. It’d be nice if the kitchen panels were tiled/painted. It’d be nice if the ceiling in the bedroom were done.

Problem is, I need to get a decorator in to look at some of these jobs, and just have absolutely no enthusiasm for it. Another person coming in who makes a mess, and then buggers off leaving an just-adequately done job. I feel bad wanting to make a profit on a house, but we have spent a lot of blood, sweat and tears bringing it from a house with damp, cold, nasty rooms into a light airy place in which it’s quite nice to actually live.

*Sighs*

Sorry, feeling less than positive – need to go running and waiting while I ‘digest’ my breakfast, because I have a tendancy to feel sick (even though my breakfast is pretty small) if I go running after breakfast.

Anyhow, my plan for the day is to cut the slot to gain access to the stairs, repair the stairs, and then do some work on prepping the bathroom floor to go back down. Maybe cut back the sealant in the shower. No great shakes, but hopefully enough that I’ll feel like I’ve achieved something. I might pick up the tile adhesive and tiles for the front entrance bit, since it’s the same as the ones for the bathroom.

I don’t know why I’m being all negative today, there’s no good reason for it, we went out last night (via Meetup) to a travel meeting group which was really nice. Just getting out and socialising was good.

Anyhow, I’m going to sit and poke at the computer or pop over to B&Q and then when I’m less full -> Run. When that’s done I might get some house stuff done.

So I’ve been trying to persuade myself to work on the tax relief form, thing is, it was tedious finding the information the first time around, and while I may berate myself for not having kept a copy of it (although I may have, and have filed it somewhere odd), I frankly am pissed that they lost it. And am a little miffed at having to fill it it in again.

At any rate, I went and got the address and name of the person I need to send it to (a specific person with an actual name and an address). And then the Left channel cut out on the HiFi.

It’s been doing this more and more of late, and while I’d initially put it down to a grubby connector – the state the volume control was in gave me that idea, while I was trying to coax it into working today another option occured.

Excuse the quality:

And after some stripping down and peering through the gap I realised that I was right to be suspicious. The speaker connectors are mounted on the board and their little legs provide a goodly chunk of the mechanical strength to hold them to the back of the case and the board. I can’t say I’m surprised, modern ‘engineering’ is such that people seem to think that solder is an adequate means of attaching things – I was always told this is terrible practice because solder isn’t very flexible, and once you’ve wiggled the joint around a bit, the joint breaks down, and you end up with a very intermittent connection.

I’ve had quite a few pieces of equipment that have come my way after this sort of fault. And it turned out that this was again the fault here – a small subtle crack around one of the left channel’s connectors. So I resoldered it, and then looked at the board and thought, y’know, that bit doesn’t look very healthy…

It does appear to be getting ‘quite warm’. So after some internal discussion I decided to continue my procrastination and pulled the board out entirely, and I’m glad I did, because most of the connectors on that ‘very warm’ bit of board weren’t really soldered anymore. Their solder had overheated and though it was probably connecting a bit, I wouldn’t want to guarantee those connections.

To be fair, I’m not sure I want to guarantee those components either – they look like they’ve got a bit toasty warm – although none of them seem to be *specifically* the one that’s got toasty warm. Which is odd. Maybe they’ve just always been ropey connections.

Anyhow, now that we have reliable stereo audio, I can get back to tax forms…

Actually, two different things. The revolting first, I feel.

So I decided to unblock the drain out at the back of the house, for one thing it smelt revolting, for another it wasn’t really draining at any sensible speed anymore, and for a third, it needed doing.

I’ve been putting it off because, well, frankly it smelt worse than melaena, and I had no desire to go near it. But last night, with the back window open I decided you could actually smell the unpleasantness that was our drain and felt that just perhaps I should have a look at it.

This drain runs from the kitchen, and that’s all. It used serve the downstairs bathroom too, but that’s all concreted up, so it’s just the sink crud that goes down there now. Well, washing machine, sink, dishwasher. Grey water, y’know.

To say it smelt bad was an understatement. Protected only by a pair of vinyl nitrile gloves I fished out the drain grate, and poked ineffectually at it with my rodding kit. It was fairly quickly clear that there was a load of solid crud at the bottom, mixed with food residue. Mmm.

I got the little trowel and started digging it out. It smelt awful.

Really, really, atrociously awful. Even with my nursing I struggled dealing with it. Having cleared the bottom it became apparent that this was not where the problem ended. No, the U-bend was also blocked…and it’d become apparent that it wasn’t food that was blocking it. No, this was tile-grout/adhesive/leveling compound residue. Or it had been until it’d spent 6 months mixing with food at the bottom of the drain.

Unfortunately my little dinky rodding kit wasn’t up to clearing it, so having persuaded as much of the water to run through the U as I could, and in the process given myself a brief shower in something revolting, I plunged my hands into the murky depths and pulled forth great slabs of nearly-set tile grout.

Thanks builders.

Most people know to wash that stuff away with *lots* of water when they clean tools, apparently you decided to skimp on that bit.

Anyway, it’s now clear, and I’ve got changed, washed my clothes and had a bath (not in that order). And then I sat down to resolve the Tax issue.

The tax office had my tax reclaim over a year ago now, and it remains unactioned – apparently their new computer system has created ‘a backlog’ which means I’m unlikely ever to see my P60s, my P45s or any of the other paperwork I sent them at their behest. It was requested 2 months ago by my current tax office (from my old tax office where I sent it) – and has yet to appear. I suspect that there’s no hope of me ever seeing it again.

To top it off, despite my hope that I’d taken a copy of it before I sent it, I appear not to have, and therefore get to fill in the tax reclaim form again… Woop. I do wonder though, what happens when they ask for my P60s again.

There is, not unusually for me, a job I’m not really fancying doing. It appears that while we were on holiday something either grew or made it’s nest in the waste pipe from the kitchen (what used to be the only drain for the house). I’ve been putting it off, because it looks really quite manky in there, but it needs doing, so today I’m going to take the rodding stuff and shove it down there in the hope that I can dislodge whatever has blocked it.

Thing is, it used to have quite rapid flow through it regularly, now it just has the kitchen run-off. I’m tempted to modify it so that feeds into the main drain, but frankly, I’m fed up of plumbing. Having not used the shower for a week, it does look like it’s the sealant *somewhere* around it that’s failed and allowing the water to run out. I’m unsure where though, although I suspect that the bottom edge of it, which catches the water running down the door is actually allowing the water to drain straight off the edge of the basin (behind the frame) and down onto the floor.

When it’s properly dry I’ll give it a really thorough clean and pop some sealant in there. I’m tempted to do the whole lot again (because it was so much fun the first time!) – because I’ve nearly got it right, and now I know how to make it seal properly against the shower basin (take the top layer off carefully, with a stanley blade, make sure it’s really, *really* clean, lightly sand it with emery, and then stick the sealant to it) – I might be able, if I use all my patience, to get it to seal properly all the way around.

In other news, Kathryn’s taken Chester to work, which is good – hopefully he’ll be a bit more reliable than the DAFs have been. Jonathon’s e-mailed me about Rebecca’s work. I have a suspicion that Rebecca will be done and finished before we get the DAF back.

I’m going to tax the bike today, because despite being a 2 stroke it actually uses *less* oil than the Micra the garage have lent me. Yes, really. That’s not right.

Anything else I achieve today will be a bonus, for extra credit. Because, frankly, I’m very can’t-be-arsed at the moment. I’ve been contemplating the house and just can’t find the energy – which sucks, I need to get and do stuff. I’ve also given my knee the day off from running, because (obviously) if it hurts and twinges when I get up then I need to rest it. I think I’m going to go back to running in my five fingers, and save the runners (posh and pricey though they were) for the run; they’re broken in now, and I was problem free running in my five fingers, but immediately I switched back to ordinary shoes I started to have issues :(

Yeah, so that’s my plan for the day. First though, I’m going to drink my tea.

So, it’s rained.

Then it stopped, and now the Volvo is sporting a brand shiny new hose. The leaky porous old hose…

is now shiny and new:

And should stop dripping coolant on the drum, which would be nice. It was a bit of a pain to persuade it to run without kinking, I think the original one was moulded wheras this is just a long stretch of plain old heater hose. Anyhow, it looks like it works. I’m hoping that I don’t need to do anything complex to prevent it getting airlocks. It says in the manual that the later 340s are ‘self bleeding’. So hopefully that’s correct…

I’ve also fitted the radio, which was foolish because I discovered afterwards that you need the radio out to extract the heater controls – and so I’ve decided to skip that. It’s autumn, coming on winter; it can stay on hot for the winter :)

The radio is fitted, and seems to more or less do its stuff. So that is a success. Less of a success is ‘finding the accelerator pedal for the minor’. I’ve tried searching the shed, unsuccessfully. I’ve tried looking in the attic. I’m thinking that it must be at my mums, despite my previous failed attempt to locate it there. We’re popping down this weekend, so hopefully I can find it then.

So I went for an abortive run today, my knee was a bit gribbley yesterday, it often gets this way after nights, so I left it ’til today to try running. Uh, not enough of a gap. I made it about 3/4ths of a mile before my knee went ‘um…No’. Fortunately, I listened, stopped fairly quickly and walked back, so it’s not so bad that I am limping, but enough that I know it was unhappy.

Still, I though. Nice breakfast, cook bread, bath and:

– Change the leaky hose on Chester since Volvo can’t
– See if I can’t bodge the heater control cable onto the heater control valve using tie-wraps or bent wire, or magic pixies, since apparently ‘the clips are no longer available’ and are missing. Hence the ‘very hot’ state of the heater.
– Find the throttle pedal for the Minor and ‘pop’ up to see her in her current state of disassembleage.

Easy peasy.

Only the weather has decided that today it shall rain. Rain and rain and rain.

I checked in the attic for the throttle pedal, which I am fairly certain I brought back from my mum’s; more certain now because I have looked in the pile of bits at my mums and not found it. I think it’s in the shed, but can’t easily go look there because (our survey said) it’s raining…

Poot.

So I’m sitting here listening to the washing machine wash, waiting for it to become dry so I can do any of the jobs planned for today.

I have to say I’m a mixture of amazed and pleased. I pulled out and as I rode down the road realised the back brake was barely working. I mean, it did something if I put all my weight on it but not a great deal, so I rode back up the road, and adjusted it, and then rode to my test.

I don’t recall being involved so much last year, but this year it was ‘roll it to here’ ‘apply the brake gently’, and then the same for the back brake. And lights and so on.

And he said “it’s a bit rusty here and there, but pretty sound” and there I was with a shiny green MOT certificate. I just need to tax it now, although I’m loath to tax it today, what with there only being 3 days left of the month. So I’ll tax it Friday.

While I was there though my eyes alighted upon some shiny chrome. Not a lot of it, but there, glinting under cover in the corner of the yard was an Austin A30 – I think – it was apparently registered one day before my birthday (granted a few years before, too).

It must have sat in that yard for years watching all the other cars come and go, and being very sad. It’s lost it’s front windscreen and is clearly at best a restoration case… but if anyone is interested the garage say that it should go to be used for parts, or for restoration. I don’t know how much they want for it, but I’m happy to ask.

Anyhow. Shiny things. The MZ is MOT’d. Ra!

Many things in life give me a disproportionate amount of pleasure. Looking at something well engineered, getting a cannula in a difficult-to-bleed patient who’s ill and needs antibiotics, music generated by Cybraphon, all sorts of random things.

But somethings cause a disproportionate amount of annoyance. For example, someone nicking our recycle bin (with 79 artfully scribed on the top of it) and switching it for a bin with a lot of mould in the bottom of it. That’s quite annoying. Arseholes, is what I say.

Anyhow, I’m off to the garage in a minute with an MZ. I’m hoping that it won’t loose too much oil through the disconnected rev-counter. I’ve been meaning to save a bottle cap to put on to seal the rev-counter-hole, which I rotated so it wouldn’t fill with water without thinking that it might, then, leak oil. It’s currently sporting a very nice purple vinyl nitrile glove finger over that. I’m doubly frustrated because I only threw away a bottle cap yesterday.

Anyhow, I must get changed…

I had various plans for today, and may yet get my act together, but mostly I’m dealing with my bodies reluctance to believe that it is day time. Sunlight is no defeater of my body’s body-clock which thinks it’s…well…it’s not entirely sure where it thinks it is, but involves making me feel faintly sick, whatever time it is.

I did, however, manage to sleep incredibly well for me on the first night.

And thus it was that I hauled myself down and Chester down to the Volvo dealership in Slough, where I handed over the keys for the first (and possibly only) time in my life, a car of mine is going to a dealership to be serviced. It’s quite an odd experience, the service desk is completely separate from the actual service department, which seems odd to me. There’s no oil or grease, there’s no people in boiler suits covered in dirt…

Anyhow, hopefully they’re going to ring back and tell me he’s done in the not too distant future, because until then we’re back down to Orlando Engineering’s loan car. What with the fact they’ve still singularly failed to ring me about the car, or I suspect even bother to have a look at it, I’m quite pleased that their Loan car is on the road outside the house, because frankly, at least I have some bargaining chips in terms of getting them to actually look at the DAF I took down there.

I have, however, been faintly if unsuccessfully productive. Kathryn found a house having a clear-out and noted the presence of a large trunk outside (and a cabinet) which she quite fancied. She didn’t bother them in the morning, but yesterday evening noted with some disappointment that the cabinet had gone. I wandered there on my way home, to see if the trunk was still outside, it is, as was a rather neat 1972 TV licence (for monochrome viewing only), which I scooped up from the garden, the trunk however I felt I really should ask about – even though it’s clearly rubbish; sadly though, no one was in.

Also in the garden was, sadly, the remenants of a black and white Ecko Television (front panel only), and the remenants of a Grundig TK20 tape recorder. If the case had been complete I might have been tempted, anyway, with the vague notion of building a Ent-Mac in the case. But it’s not.

Anyhow, I’ve also rung Mr Lilly about the Enfield which remains in Wales, hopefully soon we can get some progress on that front, and rang the Husband-of-colleague to see if he wanted to do any work on the house – but he feels it’s too far away, which is depressing because that means running the gauntlet of builders and decorators locally. A process which has so far been largely depressing.

Almost as depressing as the knowledge that money goes into the house and is unlikely to come back out.

Anyhow, so I’m thinking I have two options, one is to work on the shower, the other is to work on the bike. I’m more tempted by the bike, but we’ll see how I feel after lunch. If possible, I’d like to get her MOT’d today, so we’ll give PDM motors a ring, shall we :)

So, freecycle Slough finally came up trumps, and in our kitchen sits a sewing machine. I’ve been trying to find one for *ages* – mostly for Kathryn, because frankly my sewing is laughable. But occasionally it’s seemed like we could do with a machine. I was hoping to pick up an ancient singer with the hand-crank. This would be easily transferable to Canada but after countless lost auctions (and annoyingly never by much) I’d kind of stopped poking. And then this came up.

The Alfa 50 sewing machine. I’ve no idea of it’s exact age, but it’s an external motor/belt driven whatsit. It’s in need of a thorough clean but after lord knows how many years in the shed I checked it all turned over and moved okay – plugged it in, and pressing the foot pedal spurred it into life.

I’m quite impressed. It does, however, weigh the same as an African elephant.

I’m hoping that Kathryn knows how to thread it too, because to me sewing machines essentially look like a way to generate a cat’s cradle very quickly. She, however, is possessed of clue on the whole ‘sewing machine’ issue, and therefore there is a possibility that she could just by the power of her mind discover the correct routing for thread.

Otherwise it seems to be about a fiver for the manual – downloaded…

Anyhow, Kathryn’s home now…