Today I shall be Mainly...

[Stanley]

Working too hard on preparations? It makes me tired just watching what you lot are planning. Lots to be said for most of the family being 10,000 miles away!

[Cathy]

___ Happy Birthday Marilyn Browse our great collection of Happy Birthday.jpg

Hear ye, hear ye...
Today Marilyn will be celebrating her Birthday

[Wendyf]

Happy Birthday Maz.

[PanBiker]

Ooh Err Sue, I hope your back eases, take care.

Happy Birthday to Maz. now get on with that camper van!

[Wendyf]

Oh dear Sue, fingers crossed that you make a quick recovery.
All this talk of big family gatherings makes me a bit envious!
I shall mostly be picking beans....

[Tizer]

Happy Birthday, Maz!
Commiserations, Sue!

[Marilyn]

Thanks...have spent the day scrubbing the van ( inside of cupboards/head lining/surfaces). The driving area (cabin) had been left very grubby by various workmen in their size 10 mud encrusted steel caps. Changed the gas bottle, hung the curtains after re cleaning windows, and hubby did all sorts of drilling and screwing for tie-backs etc. He also installed the bed heads.
A few problems with the finish of a cupboard that was altered by the professionals ( I told hubby I could have done better armed with a bread knife!) but we have sorted a solution.
Major trouble with the electrics, which had been working perfectly prior to the professionals doing their bit ( we now have no 12 volt lighting etc). Storage battery for the solar energy isn't happy either.
Both of us are feeling quite stiff and tired after a full day spent working in tight spaces.
Prawns and a welcome glass of wine for dinner. Might have a hot bath before bed.

Strange kind of birthday...but happy to have worked all day. Reluctant to put anything in the van as it seems clear there are problems and it will need to go back to be sorted. ( which is a major pain)

[Sue]

It's a lot better now, but having a quiet day, in fact am off for a siesta to catch up on the four hours sleep lost during the night

[LizG]

Just catching up on the site. It's amazing what you miss in one day.

Happy birthday for yesterday Maz.

Sue, I hope your back is improving.

[Stanley]

I had a sleep day as well Sue..... Best healer there is!
That was a good birthday on the whole Maz, you are seeing progress. It will all be worthwhile....

[Marilyn]

Another very busy day. Making the most of some sunny weather before the next cold/wet snap comes thru starting tomorrow. Exhausted. Another early night I think.

[Sue]

Much improved today. Taken it easy. This morning we went to a big Carboot sale, it's the event if the week for the French! This afternoon I cut some tree prunings and tied them into bundles ready for the inauguration of the pizza oven. Trial run tomorrow to ensure it works before the family arrive. Nothing strenuous I could do it with the pruning shears. Aren't wood bundles called faggots. Anyway I did about 5 bundles of thin twigs and about 7 of thicker twigs. At least I can see the hole on the pile of tree prunings where I have taken my wood. It's all fruit tree wood from the apples etc cut last October. It's lovely and dry and should burn well.

[Stanley]

Still fighting my back. I shall return!

[Julie in Norfolk]

.... having my sense of smell tested, for work reasons not for medical goings on. There's not much wrong with my sense of smell I think, but is it keen enough?

[Julie in Norfolk]

Belated Happy Birthday Marilyn, I haven't been on over the weekend.

[Marilyn]

Thanks Julie...
I have a wonderful sense of smell...everyone laughs at me because I am always the first to detect the merest whiff of anything...from food, to rain, to dust,gas, petrol, bushfire smoke - hubby says I can smell a bushfire 30 miles away!
It has its drawbacks though because I hate some smells. I find perfume and aftershave very difficult to cope with. Even though folk say "it was just a dab", I swear they have soaked themselves in it. It is the same with the smell of Garlic. They might smile and say they ate it 3 days ago...but to me they may as well have it hung around their necks. Things like Flyspray, Metho, WD40, Bleach, Heat Rub etc...agonising! Rising damp, mould - just as bad. Hubby has this stuff he cleans the shower with that I find disgusting ( smells like a teenage boy's heavily worn wet socks to me).
I am always the first to detect Jasmine or Honeysuckle anywhere nearby, even if it's not anywhere in view...

Why do you need your sense of smell tested in regard to work? Is it to do with food?

[Sue]

Happy birthday Marilyn


My back seems to have recovered. Today is pizza day in the new oven., we hope or we shall be a bit hungry

[Julie in Norfolk]

Apparently I can't smell n-Butanol at low concentrations. I tell you I concentrated hard! Hmmm! I am a bit sniffy about this, after all I am one of those that can tell rain coming in from the north west by the smell from the pig farm.

And yes I agree with you, garlic, bleach, scent / perfume are all overpowering. I can smell my deodourant in the hallway half an hour after application in the bathroom.

[Marilyn]

Why is it necessary you smell n-Butanol?

Solving storage issues in the van today. Hubby can't stand rattles and the sound of things bumping about...

[Sue]

Julie our ability to smell certain chemicals is often genetic as is our ability to taste. That is why some people love sprouts and others hate them, it's the chemical in them some taste as bitter. Personally I love them! Similarly some people will love a red wine and others think it is awful, again genetic. As we get older our taste buds and smell sensitive cells ( I forget their name) get less sensitive and we cannot distinguish tastes and smells the same. The classic situation is an elderly person who says the food is off or it doesn't taste like it used to. My dad always put vinegar on every thing when he was older so that, he said , the food tasted of something. He even put it on his Christmas dinner once, to my horror!

[Tizer]

I, too, seem to be extra sensitive to many odours. I don't like being in traffic because of the diesel smell. The slightest off-odour in white wine puts me off drinking it (the sensory analysis people call it `cardboard '). Washing powders and dishwasher powders are horrible. Poor Mrs Tiz has to keep testing out what's OK and what isn't and the manufacturers keep changing the formulations (just to annoy me, I think!). Same with soaps and shampoos.

[Stanley]

Hello Oneguyinbarlick world.

This is Susan, Stanley's middle (and most devoted) daughter! Stanley is not 100% at the moment, hence his absence from contact. I am here VERY often with rough hands and a kind heart. He is in some pain and sleeping lots - won't have the doctor, but will let me help.
Stanley, as you all know has his own mind, firm ideas and excellent communication skills. I will defend his wishes and rub his back whilst he is recovering.
He told me not to frighten you all, but wanted to quash all rumours that he had run off to the big smoke with a 50 year old tattoo artist

Stanley has asked me to say thankyou to David Whipp and Wendy for going the extra mile. Thankyou x

[Marilyn]

Oh Bless Him.
Tell him Maz sends a hug next time you are wrestling with him. ( I know he is a single- minded individual)

[Tizer]

It's good to have the updates from Susan and Mags. If he's expressing his own mind, showing his firm ideas and refusing a doctor then he can't be too bad! We live 200 miles away and I can't travel far so Mrs Tiz and I have sent him a postcard today urging him to get well. Please tell him that we wouldn't have been surprised if he had ` run off to the big smoke with a 50 year old tattoo artist', as long as he kept posting on OneGuy!

[Marilyn]

I would have been surprised.. I don't think he would leave his shed behind for any woman!
Or the dog!