Mostly lemon based

Category: General

  • Posty posty

    First up; let’s get some links out of the way. I’ve been meaning to share these and it’s meant my browser has several million tabs open which I’m not actually using. First up, I wish they did this teeshirt in Red or Brown *and* skinny / girl’s fit. The yellow – which is the only option for us lasses is a bit bright for me. The story of the original pre-war poster is also interesting; and y’know what? I think that poster is what they should’ve put up instead of all the nasty scaremongering.

    Second up on the links front; there’s this video of Joss Whedon at equality now. It’s just an excellent speech. It’s not new or anything; but it perhaps goes a long way to explaining why I like his writing so much.

    What else? Hrm. A.M. has done some new stuff; it’s not ‘released’ – being as it’s soundtrack stuff, but you can listen to streamed version….

    And then we come to this; this is outgoing irritating git prime minister Blair’s reaction to a petition to reinstate the 25 year rolling exemption for car tax. Despite the fact that classic cars have been awarded a green apple environment award because it’s quite possible that they’re *cleaner* than modern cars (long lasting (and concomitant minimal use of resources) instead of continuous replacement with ‘better’ cars; and quite honestly they offer similar fuel consumption); in fact, even the EU has declared that classic cars impact on the environment (it terms of total vehicular impact) is, essentially negligible. And so to deny free road tax to classic cars at an arbitrary set date (1973) on ‘environmental’ grounds is, to be honest, complete bollocks. I can’t even see as they earn that much money off classics… *sighs*. Did I mention how unimpressed I am with politicians? Not that it affects me, both my car’s are pre-the-cut off date. But hey.

    The whole ‘petition’ thing largely seems like a way for the government to try and quiet the people; actually. Since I’ve seen the results of a few petitions, and they’re no sign from any of them that the government’s even pretended to listen; or even pretended that it’ll have any impact on their decisions. Whilst a lot of the time I think the government is right to ignore the screaming caused by people’s panic’d reactions to events; I like to imagine that at least occasionally they’ll listen. And quite honestly they are pissing me off; I’m no big fan of cars, in the larger sense of the word. I think they’re a hideously inefficient means of transport; I happen to enjoy them in the tinkering and design sense, but I’m sure there’s a much better solution. However, as a nurse (who they don’t pay enough to live (at least to an acceptable standard) near the hospital at which I work (by the way, thanks for the pay cut this year; that really helps with expenses)) who has to commute to work, their road pricing scheme, well, it’d make it impossible for me to work. Not that it matters, as I don’t intend to be in this country at a time when it comes in (and the not being in this country? I’m quite looking forward to that).

    Anyhow, so, in non-whining news, the waste water pipe finally made it outside today. There was some cursing, and I’ve got some concrete to mix and fill in the hole because I removed a chunk of brick (about 1/3rd) too far to the left; before realising that I was too far to the left (I drilled a hole, but because I had to drill through the wall at an angle, I didn’t realise how far out of line the marker hole outside was with where I was aiming inside. Doh). My arms are also full of glass fibre insulation (I hate working around that stuff :( ), and I need to drill and fix the pipework in place (inside) and (outside) I need to run the pipe and make the hole in the appropriate place in the wall. I may spend some of tomorrow finding receipts for things I’ve bought (the wrong size / too many / etc) of and the items, running them back to B&Q and getting the bits I do need (grey brackets instead of white; grey right angle with rodding access, low-level U bend for my new route for the bath, white 90 (well 88) for the new route for the bath. I’m still a little disappointed. I fear it won’t flow as well as my original layout, but hey, one can’t easily get round reinforced concrete.

    I also put the three good legs on the bath (nearly fell through the ceiling turning it back over); I’ve found a blacksmith locally who I shall ring to ask about fixing the other cast-iron leg. I also managed to get the 1950’s drainer out of it – it’s all old leaded pipework that I’ve been removing – nothing I could use, sadly; but the drainer on the bottom was, to be honest, a dog of a job. In the end I had to cut through (in several places) the brass nut holding it on and once that was loosened I managed to eventually get the drainer out. It’s a previous person’s bodge though – there was enough sealant under the drainer to sink a battle ship. Anyhow, that just needs cleaning up (the hole) and then the new drainer (which I admit, isn’t as nice) can go on. I’m pretty much at the ‘buying lino’ stage; I hate lino, and for the saving it’s quite depressing (it’s more than half the price of tiles (though I guess that excludes glue and grout) and tiles are more than twice as nice as lino). Still. I sometimes find it hard to do the cheaper thing as much as I probably should.

    What else? Work….

    So, yesterday I started to feel faintly useful. Not greatly so; but it’s less than a week since I’ve started, and I actually felt like I did stuff (got the best handover ever: “I’m really, sorry; there’s nothing wrong with this man, but he’s come from a crap care home, he was reviewed over the phone by a crap GP, and we’re not allowed to tell people they don’t need to come in”; it was true, at least, there certainly was nothing new and acute wrong with the poor chap who’d just been dragged into hospital). Today, at my own request, I landed up in Resus; I love Resus, except that it was like my first day as a student. I really had no-fracking-idea what was going on. Or, more accurately, I understood, but I couldn’t pre-empt, nor did I know where stuff was. It’ll come, I know it will, but it was a bit…well, I felt a bit useless. But there we go. Tomorrow is a new day, and I’d not swap my job for the world. I am though quite tired. So I’m quite pleased with the fact that I made a decent lunch when I got home, I ate really well yesterday, and I think I’ve been doing much better, food wise.

    I have this faint, nagging feeling I had something else I wanted to say. But it’s gone now… so, uh, that’ll do so.

  • If a change is as good as a rest, why am I tired?

    So, today – in short form, just because I’m currently that kind of tired where a sensible word order doesn’t always come naturally.
    – Took keys for trailer back (drove van)
    – Drove van back (they failed to notice the faint odour of dog vomit, although it’d more or less gone with the gallon of febreeze I put in it last night)
    – Walked back to house
    – Checked the bath, paint still needs more time to harden
    – Pondered plans of action: Checked, the car still wasn’t ready
    – Set to on the plastering around the base of the shower, up on the walls around the shower (they’ll be tiled anyhow); filling in where the socket and switch were (back when it was a bedroom)
    – Completed the plastering to an ‘acceptable’ standard
    – Measured and checked the shower base again
    – Took a break…removed the dead magpie from the water butt
    – Started work on digging the route of the new path
    – Dumped some hardcore in there, discovered another dead bird (presuambly fell down my kitchen’s chimney at some point, since it’s not capped; and my builders just left it in the pile with the rubble…); disposed of second dead bird in bin.
    – Dumped some sand/ash/birdfeathers onto hardcore – I’m not aiming for a perfectly smooth path, in fact, uneven is a look I rather like.
    – Laid a few rows of brick – I need to lay my hands on much more brick.
    – Mixed 18 litres of concrete (or thereabouts) and laid the ‘slab’ for the shower. Placed the shower on the slab, made sure it was level, discovered the pipework didn’t have enough give in it to fit where it was; shuffled it about on the slab a bit, made sure it was still level, and connected the waste pipe. It’s now an inch too short, because for some reason I cut it too short… I have no idea why. Quite annoying though. It means it will have to have a join in it.
    – Cut my head open while arseing about with the plumbing – I stood up while underneath the pipework for the shower (which hasn’t been cut to length, so sticks out of the wall about 30cm). It’s not a *bad* cut, I just swore and carried on working, but it’s naggingly sore. Didn’t bleed much, either, thankfully. Scalp wounds normally bleed a lot. Washing my hair’s going to hurt tomorrow, isn’t it
    – Won the taps for the bath, Ra!
    – Walked to the garage and collected Brick, who now runs much better, and sounds so much nicer. The exhaust still leaks though; anyone know if it has to be ‘perfect’ for the MOT? Or is it allowed a little leak?
    – Went to Lidl, did shopping
    – Went to Sainsbury’s; who appear to have stopped doing the fake-sausages I was particularly keen on. Bought nice food.
    – Made an awesome dinner (pasta, prawns, fresh veg, pesto; bread and cheeses, lemon cake (from my mum) and strawberries (from my mum); and for some reason I accompanied it with lager, I guess it’s the summer heat). Sometimes I can get the energy up to eat.
    – Spent some time hunting for the Nipod. I’m now seriously concerned; and beginning to have to fight quite hard not to put “day builders left” and “last day I saw the Nipod” together. TBH I don’t think for a second they stole it, but it may have got picked up. Still, I’ve still not paid them…
    – Spent the evening chatting to Kathryn ( :) )
    – Spent the evening also watching Sicko. It made me cry, damnit. And it’s so not right. America, get your (healthcare) act together.
    – Listened to lots of AM. AM remains awesome.

    Am now planning to go to bed. Tomorrow I’m on a late, so a nice quiet morning is scheduled… I may go to a bathroom shop and see if they do cistern supports and sink supports. I may not.

  • Advice required (warning, grim).

    So, in my back garden there’s a big tub-o-rain water. A barrel if you will. A big 20 (maybe 40?) gallon drum. It has no lid on it. I’ve always thought that when the shed was done, I would use the run off from that (and maybe arrange the guttering so it caught some of the run off from the garages behind) to fill the container. Unfortunately, at the moment it’s about 6 foot from the house, and it’s also about half full of really revolting water.

    Plan was, tip it over, let the water drain away, and move it when I sort out the shed.

    Great plan, slight hitch. One, the builder piled all his rubble next to it.

    And two, when I walked past yesterday I noticed some movement in there; now; unfortunately for me (the squeamish among you may want to stop reading here) I looked across.

    I wasn’t expecting anything, really, I’ve looked in there a few times, hell, my builders were using it as water to mix concrete, and that was one of my plans. But yeeees. I looked in and I saw maggots. Maggots roaming and squriming on a dead bird floating in the water. It is one of the most revolting things I’ve seen in my life; even my nursing and the sights and smells hadn’t really prepared me for the odour or the *please leave* signals from my brain.

    But now I don’t know what to do. I really have absolutely no idea how to get the damn thing gone. It is unutterably grim, and the concept of going near it doesn’t exactly fill me with joy. That and the water which was previously grim through standing now is….even more unpleasant. Let’s put it that way. But my thought is that I want rid of both the water and the poor deceased creature…but I don’t really want that water anywhere near my house. But I can’t move it. Argh.

    Help, anyone?

  • Adding physicality to the abstract of a concept.

    So, I’ve had a busy day. Really busy; no; busier than that. But before I get into that; you – people – go watch Hot Fuzz, it’s very funny. Saw it yesterday, laughed lots, really a very silly film.

    Yes.

    So, today. Well, first up because I’m too late for Snapshot Hunter (I’m really fracking *bad* at getting the shots in on time) here’s what would have been my entry:

    And yes, I do indeed need new chain gators for my MZ. Well spotted….

    Anyhow, so, on with today. Today was long. No, seriously, it was long. The concept was: Collect van, collect trailer, fly to mum’s, collect money, fly to Bristol, collect Nikki, fly to Wales, collect the car, frly back to Bristol, drop off Nikki, fly back to my mum’s, drop off the car and the charger, fly back to home and drop off the trailer (before they shut) before finally, ideally dropping off the van before *they* shut.

    It didn’t quite work out like that. I was a bit late arriving at Bucks Car Hire; but then I don’t see the point in sprinting there for 0830 when both times I’ve been there for 0830 they’ve been….shut. So we commenced the day at 0845. Not too bad.

    Then I filled up with derv, well, filled the van up with derv, not myself. Uuuh, and collected the trailer. I had a bit of a chat about using the trailer; despite my lovely licence being adorned with many exciting things I’ve not *actually* driven with a trailer before (although I’m entitled by my licence to drive a fuck-off-big-van with a fuck-off-huge-trailer; not just a little dinky van with a trailer, which is what I did today).

    Anyhow, so van hitched to trailer and fun and games explained I headed out to Bristol.

    And without too much trauma made it to Nikki’s house. Although to get the trailer into their courtyard I ended up unhitching it. While I was just about working out how to get the trailer where I needed it with it hitched, a lorry turned up and rather than sit in their way for a few hours I just unhitched it and moved it.

    Having collected Nikki, and somewhat fatefully, Pepper we continued on down the motorway to Wales.

    Now, I haven’t got any photos of the car in Wales, there are several reasons for this; one is that it was pissing with rain as we loaded up the car, and, well, I got quite wet (although, for reasons I shall come to, I was already a bit damp) and thus was in a hurry; another is that Nikki had her camera, which is somewhat better resolution than mine, and she was merrily snapping away, but the main reason is that I came to understand with a real deep, physical awareness, what the phrase ‘as sick as a dog’ actually means.

    I’ve travelled in vans with Pepper a grand total of twice. On both occasions poor Pepper has been sick. Last time Pepper was sick on the floor, but today, Pepper was sick…. on me. Mostly, thankfully, on the van. But also on my bag (now in the bin…) and also on me. Nikki (who I thank from the bottom of my heart for coming and helping) works out today that if you feed Pepper not too long before a car journey he’s sick! Gaaah! ;-) You have to bear in mind that I didn’t have a change of clothes… and so rushed in to meet the very nice chap selling the car, who kindly showed me to the outside toilet where I scrubbed at my trousers with soap and attempted to rinse the worst off; while Nikki attempted to clean the van.

    Unfortunately, for the rest of the trip, the Van smelt of dog-sick. At least, until we got back to Bristol where I forgave Febreeze for all it’s sins; and sprayed it merrily all over my trousers and the van seat. I’m hoping that after 3 doses the smell will be weak enough to pass off as non-existent.

    Anyhow, so, we got the Enfield onto the trailer without too much difficulty, and even more impressively, the charger into the van…

    The Enfield charger kinda dates the car. In many respects the enfield is not far off modern city ev’s; in fact, it can easily be made *better* than a lot of modern city EV’s, but the charger is a good old fashioned fracking huge transformer in a *BIG METAL BOX*. It needs to be set up correctly for the batteries in my mum’s EV, anyway, before we do anything with it. So I need to talk to our resident EV guru.

    And lo, here is the Enfield sat on a trailer:

    And from the back…

    And yes, that’s Nikki untying the Enfield…

    And here’s a slightly better shot of the car, once it was unloaded…

    Apparently they kept changing the design of the interior, certainly the location of the dials and gauges seems to vary enormously from car to car (here’s the three shots (1) (2) (3) of the dash of the other Enfield I looked at, the for-restoration one)

    And finally, here’s the front. It’s been slightly modified in so far as it’s got a grille from a Rover stuck on; with the rover badge replaced with an Enfield logo. I can’t quite decide what I make of it (the original look is here).

    Unfortunately, it needs a new horn and a new MOT. But hopefully, we can get it all sorted quite quickly. However, what is bad is that having played a little with it; one is more tempted by the sickly one. Which, fortunately is being stripped for spares; otherwise I’d be tempted to do something silly.

    At any rate, I didn’t get back to home until about 7:30, by which time I was pretty tired, but I did do one more useful thing before collapsing on the sofa…

    ….with the rather nice dinner my mum very generously left for me (and the desert. Home grown strawberries, some raspberries and a nectarine all chopped up and with cream. Nyum).

    And now, now I intend to sleep.

  • So, I was in a good mood.

    Yesterday, orientation and a few hours in the ED and I was very nervous; it didn’t seem to be coming back to me; I felt like I knew nothing and although I convinced myself not to stress too much about it; I found it a really hard day. Today was basically A&E as I remember it; stressful, insanely busy, targets and things that keep my right at the edge of my comfort zone. By which I mean that occasionally stray into my comfort zone, but spend most of my time looking at my comfort zone from the comfort of a place of me going ‘um, err, okay, like that is it?’. Today was, in fact, made of awesome. I am, however, quite tired. And being tired, one likes nice things to come home to.

    I decided to go and collect my signed for package. This was, perhaps, a mistake. It was hot, and I am tired, so it did nothing to improve my mood; nor did discovering that my bike’s ignition lock has lost the two bolts that hold it in. It’s not especially convenient to get to either; and I need, obviously, to locate the right size bolts so I can get two new ones to hold it in. I’ve no idea why it came off, nor why the gear lever’s taken to falling off. Granted it’s managed it twice at remarkably sensible times (both times at traffic lights, while stationary, and on neither occasion has it been run over); the bloody thing *seems* tight when I get it on; and doesn’t seem to want to do up any tighter, but sadly the spanners I require are in the car… and the car is?

    Well, the car’s still with the garage. They’ve had it since Thursday; It now being, uh, Tuesday I rang and found out that they still haven’t finished the service. Which is, to be honest, quite impressive. They hope to get it done tomorrow. A week for a service is quite something. Annoying; that’s it, annoying. We see now why Kate never lets other people work on her vehicles.

    But that still wasn’t the highlight of my day. No, we’ve had several great bits. First was opening the package – that was *meant* to contain the last cap for the gas hob; one of the caps for one of the rings was missing – the guy e-mailed me even before it’d arrived to say ‘I found this, I forgot to send it’; now I don’t think I mentioned, but the hob has been slightly damaged in transit; it may be possible to straighten out the dings without too much in the way of evidence, but I’m not willing to pay that much for something (a) damaged and (b) damaged by poor packaging. Anyhow, as soon as I looked at the cap I thought ‘that’s not right, it’s the wrong colour and the wrong shape’; and taking it to the hob… it is indeed the wrong colour *and* the wrong shape. It does not match, it does not fit, and clearly didn’t come with the hob. I have e-mailed the seller again; but since I didn’t hear back after the first e-mail I suspect it’ll be dispute time. And if it comes to it, I’ll have to consider the small claims court.

    *sighs*

    Many times I’ve listed stuff on e-bay with shoddy descriptions, such as to shift a piece of crap; but I have always been accurate in the descriptions. They may have misdirected people (something I’m not particularly proud of), but there’s a difference between that and lying. But maybe this person really *has* sent the wrong one.

    So then, having failed to get the car back, the hob, and such, I found that I didn’t win the taps. There’s a second set, which irritatingly come without their imperial -> metric adaptors. But still. People who persistently bid 30 seconds (actually, in this case 16 seconds) before the end of the auction should be barred from e-bay. Bloody mares.

    And then I rang NHS Professionals; see I’ve not been paid for my shift in May; so I rang and discovered that my timesheet ‘hasn’t been processed’; so I rung the timesheet department who informed me that my timesheet’s not arrived. Fuck knows why. They can’t check if my other timesheet’s arrived, but it doesn’t matter because I won’t be paid until next fucking week anyway for my other shifts. IIrc, when I worked bank before, if you got your timesheets in by Tuesday you were paid at the end of the week. Fucking NHSP.

    The reason I’m *quite* so ranty about this is I forgot, this month, what with all the stressors, to pay my council tax; but – I thought – it’s okay, I’ve got this money coming in extra, it should cover my council tax and servicing the car. Only, no. Because it’s not going to arrive; so now I’m going to have to pay the council tax out of credit card money, which is exactly what I didn’t want to do. ARGH.

    See, I dealt with a new work environment, I dealt with patients running at the limits of my knowledge. I walked in to a department that was full (so instead of stocking up I spent time sorting out patients!); my morning was completely insane. That was fine. The bike didn’t want to do more than 75kmh all the way home, that was fine too (strong headwind); but not being paid for work, and them not being able to check anything about timesheets. I mean, the worst thing is they *know* I did the shift, they know the hours, and they know what break I was entitled to. But they won’t pay me until this sheet of paper arrives. Except that I no longer *have* that sheet of paper; though fortunately my old trust don’t keep the manager’s copy; so I will still have a copy after I’ve sent it off. I’d hurry, but I’m not going to be paid for 2 more fucking weeks anyway. Useless bloody people. How slow can you be to process timesheets?

  • Whining and feeling none-too-clever.

    So; tomorrow I start work in the emergency department at St. Fred’s. I have to say I’m nervous; for several reasons:

    1) My hayfever (well, allergic rhinitis) is worse than ever; I’ve resorted to mixing anti-histamine and decongestants today; with rather limited success. Apparently, it’s a mix that you can get – but it’s not really worked. I did feel a bit better for a bit though, so I shall probably do it again tomorrow.
    2) My car’s still in the ‘shop being fixed, so I’m going to have to go on the bike. I’m slightly unsure as to what happens on the first day (uh, I was expecting induction, but I appear to be going to the department… to be orientated… ?). I have two letters which tell me to go at different times to meet different people. So I’m slightly unsure as to what I should wear. It’s not like I have a uniform; but do I take work shoes such as I can get changed into a uniform when I get there?
    3) It’s a new job and I’m scaaaared!

    So, yeah. I’m sure it’ll be fine so.

    I suspect the allergic rhinitis is being exacerbated by the dust in the house. I think I’m actually allergic to dust, and I suspect it’s the dust from the building work that is causing me grief. I hope that I can get the bathroom finished soon; although I’ve taken today off – in preparation for tomorrow. I did actually feel rather better when I was up and doing stuff; but I feel that I should probably rest.

    Of course, I’m also probably feeling none-too-clever because last night was my leaving party (which was ace, by the way, I really will miss Q-Ward, or at least the staff of Q-Ward); we headed into Woking for Chinese food and then across to a pub/club for drinks and dancing. Well, coke – in my case – because I was riding. While I had an excellent time, I did head back at midnight, getting home about 1am – after a somewhat chilly ride (it rained). The bike did well though – although we’re still topping out at 80km/h, which is a bit distressing.

    In house news; I’ve all but finished the water-plumbing in the bathroom (not the central heating); I need the following to finish off the plumbing:

    – Pressure reducing valve.
    – 3 ordinary and dull white radiators (with valves) (ack, I need to do more BTU calculations!).
    – 1 Cast iron radiator with valves/adaptors to take modern thermostatic valves.
    – 2 Bath taps.
    – Sink and cistern supports – I was hoping to restore and reuse the ones that are currently holding up my sink (the cistern supports are a bit plain, but I might go with them) but the sink ones go behind the bath which makes them somewhat hard to remove (I will examine this more carefully).

    There’s the hole in the outside wall to drill, and then the connecting of the plumbing, and that’s it, really. In plumbing terms, there’s the radiator pipes to run into the spare bedroom; I gave in, these are going to have to be boxed in – and run above the floor. And the pipes to the master bedroom which run under the floor (well, they run in the same direction as the floor joists!)

    Once that’s done; then it all just needs to be connected downstairs. At the moment I have what looks like a slightly odd windchime or set of pan-pipes hanging down in my bedroom with “H C CH Feed CH Return” daubed in marker.

    The bath is upside-down ready to be sanded and painted; sadly I discovered a chip, I suspect that the previous owner wasn’t aware of it, but a bit of enamel came away when I removed one of the globe taps. It’s got some staining behind it so I’m fairly certain I didn’t chip it as I was taking the tap off. Apparently that’s about 70 quid to fix; on the plus side there appear to be taps matching the ones on my sink; globe type tapes; in the same style. I hope I win that auction!

    I’m very rambly today; that’s because I slept like crap (another benefit of having hayfever / allergic rhinitis). Anyhow. I should get off and read my info for tomorrow. And maybe eat dinner.

  • Don’t look back…

    So, last day on Q-Ward at Saint Bob’s Hospital, it was very weird to leave. I guess because while I’ve been there about as long as I was on placements; when I left placements I didn’t leave alone. And I knew I’d be back in the same hospital (except after my second placement…) for the next placement.
    Nor did I have to hand in ID cards and my badge (I wanted to keep my badge, it had ‘Staff Nurse’ written on it; I’ve not had a badge with Staff Nurse written on it before). Tomorrow, incidentally, is my leaving party.

    So it felt odd. I got dumped in the shower and doused in shaving foam (I still smell of shaving foam!); which I’m taking as a sign of being well loved (and not as a sign of them being desperately pleased that I’m leaving!). I hugged various people, but these things, they kind of lack closure, sometimes. And what’s more odd, is that monday morning (painfully early) I start at St. Fred’s.

    Also more odd is the fact that it’s raining. Why is that odd? Because it started just *after* I got home. Now that is abnormal.

    At any rate, I made it through the first 6 months of being qualified; now onto the hard bit…

    In other news, last weeks episode of Dr Who featured urbexing, and oddly enough 1969 (the year my car was made). How awesome is that? Now they just have to squeeze in East German motorcycles and they’ll have my life in there :-) (it was; incidentally, a thoroughly awesome epsiode, especially given that it was a one-parter).

  • Making with the pretty.

    On monday, I was riding to work and there was sloooow traffic, and the reason was that some truck had lost what had once been a sheet of pink expanded polystyrene (Like the big blocks of packing material made of little tiny tiny bubbles of polystyrene).

    By the time I got there it had been hit and been through the vents of countless cars – so was mostly down to tiny granules, and was sort of bouncing and pseudo floating, slowly, in a almost gravity defying way. The tiny particles being so limited in their weight and trapped in the slipstreams of the passing cars were whipped all over the place, and the bigger bits bounced slowly and then were dragged back up into the air by the turbulence.

    It was just awesome.

    I wish I’d’ve had a camera to video it….

  • The long and the short of the week

    It’s been a weird week really; monday was insanely hectic, the shower screen arriving and everything; I really intended for Tuesday to be a working day – as in, getting more done on the house, but after work I just fell into bed. Fell, pretty much literally. I led there and I thought ‘ten minutes’ – and I set an alarm clock. After ten minutes thought ‘no, I really am knackered’ and decided to kip for another half hour. In the end I didn’t wake up until Kathryn rung (I’m glad she did though, both because I really miss her voice, and talking to her is just fantastic, but also because otherwise I’d’ve woken up at 2am and cursed myself, a lot).

    Wednesday saw me working a late; before which I had to head to St Fred’s Hospital for the Clinically Unwell to get myself stabbed, and to drop off my Birth Certificate and Passport. I am me, I really am. Anyhow, because I’m working in the ED and there’s the possibility of me bleeding onto a patient, I have to be checked for Hep B and C exposure (and optionally, HIV). Since I believe that I should do no harm, I got the optional HIV check too… And because that thought was strong in my head (actually, it’d been strong in my head already, otherwise I’d’ve not been able to do that); I went straight from there to Slough’s ‘Garden Clinic’.

    The Garden Clinic does nothing to do with gardening… in common with all of the sexual health clinics I’ve heard of, it’s name is completely unrelated to it’s purpose; anyhow I wanted to get screened, because; well, I’ve had more than a couple of partners over the years, and whilst I can’t think of any situation which would lead me to think any of ’em were positive for anything… well, anyway, I felt it was a good plan. In fact, as a lesbian I feel it’s important to say this: Lesbians can get STDs. Yes. Even pure-bred lesbians who never go near men. It’s true. There’s several we can get.

    Anyway, they were exceptionally nice, if slightly unsure as to exactly what tests they were going to need to do; although the experience was overall slightly un-fun. Anyway, So, yes. I feel good for doing it though :-)

    This was of course, all achieved while haring around on my two wheeled Cherry Red ‘zed. Whilst I can’t say she’s been good as gold, she’s certainly done well – given that she’s still leaking oil and lubricant (oh, and that new chain gator I fitted sometime back has worn through already, bloody modern parts); but there is one rather serious problem. I know she’s not well because from a target of 60mpg we’re getting around 37. 37 mpg is atroicious on an MZ, and while it’s probably better than the Viva manages on said run (and also deferred by the minimal servicing cost of the MZ), it’s rather painful to know that in all probability most of that fuel is either mixed with the gearbox ‘oil’ or going straight through some of the leaking gaskets.

    I shall have to fix it properly. Although, the curse of my motorcycle being on the road has struck. Whilst it’s not really much colder, it did rain yesterday and today…

    In other news, yet more bits arrived for the house; the hob (which I’m yet to unpack) and the (fucking expensive, ‘scuse my language, but seriously!) flush pipe. I didn’t mention (or did I?) that they’d ordered the wrong one; well it turns out the right one is 75 pounds. Well, actually, closer to 90. If they’d’ve said that I’d’ve not ordered it. But it’s rather too late now :-/

    But geeze. Won’t be buying from them again.

    And finally, I have started to collect bits for Rebecca’s engine. So, uh, they’re being collected together; I’ve now got a mildly warm Cam (assuming it’s intact) and an uprated oil pump. Sing ho for the new engine…

    No?

    Oh ah.

  • Corraling chaos. Again.

    So, this morning’s plan was simple, if somewhat busy:

    – MOT Cherry
    – GP
    – Return Keys
    – Tax bike
    – Go to pharmacy

    See, easy. Timing was slighly of the essence, with the MOT being at 0800, and the GP at 0920, and the van keys needing to be back by 10.

    But I decided to do things a bit…differently. In the end, the MOT went spiffingly (we won’t mention what I forgot to do when I changed the front disk, because frankly it’s terrifying; but the bike passed. I shall not work on vehicles when I have hayfever again). Because it was on the route back I stopped and dropped off the keys on the way back, which seemed, to me, to be a good idea… I wasn’t counting on Bucks Van Hire’s relaxed approach to opening hours. When I went to pick up the van they opened about 15 minutes late; and the same today. I arrived at 0832, and they didn’t end up opening until 0845; despite what their sign says.

    That delay meant that as I pulled into the road, a Pallet*brand* delivery truck was sat; the guy at my front door posting a ‘we tried, you were out’ note through. I pulled up and shouted, “I’m here” and then thought better of it – but it was too late. I wasn’t *expecting* a delivery today. I’d been expecting one all day Friday; in fact it’d stopped me doing various things because I couldn’t go out, because… I was waiting for a delivery.

    So, with 25 minutes to my GP appointment we set to unloading the van; in and up the stairs went my new shower door; the extra interesting the extra interesting bit being maneuvering it into the spare room, which is currently devoid of a lot of it’s floor. I expected it to come disassembled, but I was wrong (oh, so wrong) and it’s arrived as one huge lump of shower screen. This is in many respects good, I don’t have to assemble it and it probably seals better… but the bad side is it’s fracking huge and I have to deal with it by myself…

    Anyhow, with 15 minutes to spare, I got the bike taxed (‘cos I’d rather not drive Brick with the flickery oil light – and as I said before, I couldn’t get the oil sender out; don’t you just love being able to tax vehicles online?) and I headed off to the GP. I met a very nice GP who gave me Fexofenadine (without my prompting) and will send me to a local allergist who can refer me to the Sublingual Immunotherapy Allergy Clinic to which I’d very much like to go.

    I then flew to the pharmacy who amazed me by having everything in stock – I’m now trying the Fexofenadine for the first time, although I only hope for it to work tomorrow, really. I’m carrying the eyedrops in reserve. I’ve arranged for the Viva to be serviced. And, y’know what? I’m feeling quite good. I mean, my hayfever’s not brilliant, but it’s not awful; at the moment anyhow; and again, contrary to expectations, this morning has gone quite well. I worry, though, about this afternoon. First day back at work after a week off; it’s always traumatic.

    And then I can get on with the bathroom tomorrow afternoon….