Today I shall be Mainly...

[Sue]

IPad great but lots to learn. We flew to Dinard , Eileen, it's only 55 minutes. We then hired a car, the drive to our place is120km, about an hour and a half on a good run

[EileenDavid]

Hello Sue,

Thanks for that is it a direct flight from Leeds Bradford to Dinard? How much does it cost roughly. Eileen

[Sue]

Yes it was a direct flight. it cost £27each person each way, then of course we had to hire a car.Its only worth it to us for short trips

[Whyperion]

Should have booked my coach travel earlier , London to Barnoldswick , about £20 each way , time taken about 7 hrs . ( well thats the plan for Monday night ) . Today off to watch toy trains running round in High Wycombe.

[Stanley]

Bad back day yesterday for some obscure reason so a quiet day today! Have an article in mind....

[Nolic]

Taking the lad back to Liverpool for a new year at Uni. He's very exited as his time in the flight simulator has been increased!!Nolic

[EileenDavid]

Thanks for that Sue, it would only be worth it to us for short trips but worth having the information. Today I will be thinking of our Harry who will be going to Sheffield to start university studying Biochemistry, I will miss him thank God for the emails and texts. Eileen

[Tripps]

Is that his second year or third? Time flies. Sounds like he is enjoying it. Well done.

[Nolic]

Tripps thanks for asking. This is the start of his third year of a four year course.He's loving it and making the most of Uni life but (unlike his dad) with work a priority. He's been saying for the past week (since he found out about increased simulator time) how much he's looking forward to getting stuck into his work again. Nolic

[PanBiker]

Remind us what he is doing will you Nolic. Dan left Sixth Form the same time as I was made redundant and I have forgotten what course he is on.

[Nolic]

He's doing an aero engineering degree. He always enjoyed and was good at maths and physics and he wanted to apply this to something practical rather than further study of pure maths or physics. He has to find an internship this year so already has feelers out at Rolls, Westons and Euravia. He really enjoys what he's and despite working full time during his vacation at The White Bear he's been doing some studying as well.
Lovely little tale from this morning. When I dropped him off to unload his gear I had to park in front of someone's house. The householder came out and I apologised for parking where I had and said I would be away in a few minutes. In a scouse accent (obviously) he said " No problem. Park here all day if you need to. Just be considerate and don't make a noise as we have students across the road and they work that hard they need a lie in!!!" this was followed by a loud chuckle then " Have a good day" . I like Liverpool and can understand why Dan likes living there. Nolic

[Stanley]

Nice! Good for Dan. Can't think where he gets it from.....

[Marilyn]

Got the urge to completely empty out our guest bedroom and Spring clean it today. It is always neat and tidy, but it was a good day to strip the bed, flip the mattress, air the quilt, vacuum the skirting boards, wash the window and clean every darn slat of the timber blind.
Where these urges come from, I do not know...

[Wendyf]

Going up to HAPPA at Briercliffe to help stuff envelopes with their Xmas catalogues, then I have a dish full of vegetables soaking in brine ready to be made into piccalilli later this afternoon. Hubby is dry-lining the living room walls, so we are living in building site chaos here. Strangely enough, I enjoy it.

[Marilyn]

What is dry-lining?
( you have wet walls? )

[Moh]

Not nest building are you Maz??

[Wendyf]

Trip to HAPPA cancelled as the magazines haven't been delivered yet, so it's on for tomorrow instead.
Yes Maz, wet walls are a bit of a problem with these old farmhouses! The living room is a late 19th century extension to the old house, and it has been lined with blocks at some point so we thought it would be ok, but it is quite cold & the concrete blocks actually draw the damp. We fasten battens to the wall, then insulation, a vapour barrier and finally plasterboard. Makes the house a bit more warm & cosy....though the wind stills blows in through the plug sockets
Coffee break over, picallili time.

[Tizer]

We fasten battens to the wall, then insulation, a vapour barrier and finally plasterboard. Makes the house a bit more warm & cosy....though the wind stills blows in through the plug sockets

We did that to a solid stone gable end internal wall and it's definitely made the room warmer. It holds back the damp to some extent but it creeps out under the skirting and rots the edges of the carpet! The floor is old concrete with no insulation so we are having a membrane put on top, then 50mm Xtratherm (polyurethane insulation board with foil lining), and a floating chipboard floor. Then new underlay and carpet. We're also going to upgrade the windows from the 25-year-old double glazing to the latest version, argon-filled with low-emission coating. It had better be warm after that!

[Big Kev]

What is dry-lining?
( you have wet walls? )

Dry lining refers to covering the walls with plasterboard (sheetrock), nailed or screwed to studs (wooden or metal battens), as opposed to plastering the walls (a wet mix). I hope that makes sense.

[Stanley]

I thought that as well Moh!
Finished the BET article yesterday and did a few odd jobs... Back in the shed today.

[Wendyf]

A big window on the west facing gable end to be replaced today, which should be great fun in the wind & showers...

[Marilyn]

Nesting....me?
Oooooo 'eck! Not a snowball's chance in Hades!
Though I have been rather enjoying the series "Call the Midwife" these past few weeks. Get all gooey seeing those babies being born. Especially the breech delivery, which I thought they did very well.

Nail everything down, Wendy. Could be a long day.
I think the dry lining you refer to is called Gyprock here, and is used as an internal facing in all modern homes these days.
Do make sure to count your pets before hubby hammers on the last piece...

[Tizer]

..and check you've still got your Ipad!
(Unwanted fact No.272: Gyproc is so-called because it's made from gypsum, calcium sulphate, CaSO4, also known as alabaster.)

[Marilyn]

Hubby works in the building industry and designs a lot of houses, Tiz, and I can smell the gypsum in the product when we walk through homes that are being built. He can't smell it. I can probably pick out the odour because it has a similar tang to wet plaster applied to fractures.
I have a pretty sensitive hooter. We have a lot of building going on around us, and I can often smell things like gypsum, paint, thinners, paint stripper etc floating on the breeze.
He reckons I can smell bush fire smoke when it is one part per million and forty miles away.
It can be a curse of course. I hate the smell of garlic and our after dinner walks each evening can be a trial to my olfactory system.

[Tizer]

It's amazing how much we humans vary in our sense of smell, you'd think we would have evolved to have similar sensitivities. Mrs Tiz detects more odours than I do and at lower levels but I'm very sensitive to diesel - I hate driving behind diesel cars (but we've bought one because of the low fuel consumption, at least the smell is left behind us!). I don't eat garlic any more and can easily tell when she's been eating it.