Today I shall be Mainly...

[plaques]

Stanley, our little chat the other day we touched on the price of cigarettes having never smoked I thought that they cost something between £5 to £7 for 20. The budget increased them to £14.37 average for 20. Reminds me of Edward Heath...

Ocean racing is like standing under a cold shower tearing up £5 notes.

[Sue]

Morning

Its a wet day today, so different activities. We have a fruit tree to plant and some herbs after our shopping trip yesterday, so will take the opportunity to do it during dry moments but otherwise its a decorating day.

Have a good day all

[Stanley]

Morning Sue. Our day is turning out quite bright. I might even go for a walk. I can do that because with the site being down I have done all the little jobs that were on the list including the cooking left over from yesterday.



I went in the shed and did useful things to my bed casting this morning...... Only the pockets for the pedestal brasses to machine now.

[Sue]

Has one guy been playing up. I have struggled to load or post anything but seems ok now. Everything else appears to be working normally. …..ah just read your note above

One and a half walls painted and the sun has come out but its sodden out there after heavy rain overnight

[Big Kev]

Has one guy been playing up. I have struggled to load or post anything but seems ok now. Everything else appears to be working normally. …..ah just read your note above

There was a slowdown, potentially due to maintenance at the hosting site. All seems to have settled down now.

[PanBiker]

Yes Sue, I think it was probably due to hosting site maintenance.

[Sue]

Thanks both. We are only on mobile connections here now, so wondered if it was us. We cancelled t’internet and phone during lockdown as it was dead money £720 per year . Luckily our mobile contracts give us free European roaming…at the moment

[Tripps]

Are we with INEOS ? The adverts currently on TV for that company - some crazy woman who looks like an extra from The Simpsons - charging round on a scooter - do nothing to inspire confidence in the company.

But maybe that's just me. (again).

[PanBiker]

Yes, the site is hosted with IONOS, formerly 1&1. The character you refer to is Aunt Helga.

[Tripps]

Yes - I got that wrong - it is IONOS>

INEOS if the chemical /oil conglomerate run by Failsworth lad Sir Jim Radcliffe. He's trying to buy Manchester United at the moment.

I'm not a big fan of Aunt Helga. I usually think she must own or have some influence in the company to get into the adverts. Seems I was wrong again. Here's the tortured thinking behind the ad campaign. Aunt Helga

Having read that - my BS detector has just bent the needle against the backstop.

[Stanley]

I took the trouble to read the piece about Helga and agree with David. Marketing hype layered with common or garden codswallop.
I shall be having a normal day today I hope. I look forward to trawling the site and then having my morning hour in the shed. With a bit of luck I shall have a short walk later, nothing in the forecast to stop it.

[Sue]

Morning

Yesterday turned out to be a surprisingly nice day but we saw little of it. I was decorating and Bob was putting up the lights in the new room. I have a second coat of paint to do on one wall today, then I shall be tackling the stone wall. Ideally this wall should be pointed but a) it would be too expensive and b) too messy as it is an internal wall, so we are going to brush it down and seal it with PVA glue. This has been used to good effect in a lot of renovations. It will stop the dust and bits shedding and bring out the colour of the stone. The next owner can point it if they want to

Today I also need to wash towels and am hopeful they will dry outsde. Intermittant rain stopped that yesterday. We have invested in a LAKELAND drying tent for want of a better phrase, but my trial run found it took ages for thick things. At least I do have an old fashioned ceiling mounted airer if all else fails. My present, 18 year old, very cheap washer has a rubbish spin. We hope to replace it this summer with one with a better spin which will help with the drying of thick things. Its no problem in the summer but is in the winter.

This evening we have been invited to Joanne and Pauls for a meal . Paul is our English builder friend. Though now retired he still does the occasional job for us, like lining the walls of the room we are decorating. They have just spent 4 months in Spain, nice yes but in a caravan, no, not for me.

Have a good day all .

[Stanley]

Morning Sue, it sounds as though you had a busy day yesterday.... I hope you have a good day today......



A nice hour in the shed. I finished the milling of the bed casting, cutting the pockets for the pedestal brasses and cleaning the flanks of the horns of the casting. Then I drilled the lugs on the casting for the 2BA fasteners to the base. I'll attend to them tomorrow.

[PanBiker]

Visiting mum's, already been down to Gill to take some flowers for mine. Off to Carleton after lunch to do the same for Sally's mum. Picking Anthony's mum Pam up in Skipton then going on to our Carla's for a Mothers Day tea.

[Stanley]

I've been out for a short walk and a sit on traffic duty at the end of Albert Road. That wind is a bit thin but at least it's dry!

[Stanley]

I shall be in the shed for an hour with my castings..... Not sure about a walk because we have light rain forecast for much of the day.....

[Sue]

Morning

A good day gardening, decorating and socialising. More of the same today but we also need to shop. We need to stock up on tinned food. There is talk of a general strike here in retaliation to the way the new legislation on the retirement age was passed. We may find it difficult to get home next week . Laetitia came round to tell us what is happening but we also asked Joanne and Paul for their understanding of the situation. The next few days will reveal the situation.

Have a good day all

[Stanley]

There's always something isn't there Sue! I hope it turns out OK for your plans. If not, I hope you enjoy the unwanted stay! Fingers crossed.



This morning I drilled and tapped for the 2BA bolts that fasten the bed to the base casting and once that was done, drilled the lugs in the base and fastened the castings down onto the temporary base that makes fitting easier. A nice quiet uncomplicated hour and a quarter with no errors..... Nice!

[Sue]

This morning Laetitia has shown a map on facebook on road blocks round Renne for Monday morning. They block our normal route. Obviously things can change in a week . However we think we will drive up tonSt Malo on Sunday instead and stay in a hotel overnight, that way any delays will be on Sunday and not Monday morning which would result in us missing te ferry. We have plenty of fuel and will not need to buy, but they are talking of petrol stations running out and limits on driving . Of course talk does not mean it will happen. Things are often said to get a reaction

[Sue]

We managed to fill up with diesel when we arrived at the Supermarket, when we left it had sold out ! We now have 650 miles worth in the car. Should last until we get nearly home and get us to any ferry port we get sent to. We met Nicole at the supermarket. It is Roland's birthday on Wednesday and the home is doing a party for him with musicians. We are going to go and surprise him

[Stanley]

That was handy Sue....
I shall be in the shed for an hour as usual and then what happens afterwards depends, as usual, on the weather. It's not looking very positive at the moment.

[Sue]

Morning

Today is the last dry day forecast this week so we will make the most of it. I intend planting seed potatoes but first need to go and buy them. Bob wants to finish cutting a hedge, then I think it is back to the PVA on the stone wall and the lighting in the new room. We are making huge progress.

Yesterday I bought a food dehydrator in Lidl. There was a big stack of them that had been reduced. We brought it home and found the plastic trays were broken so had to go back to change it. The second one is fine and I did a batch of parsley which has been growing in a pot over the Winter. I am much impressed. I am my fathers daughter and just love gadgets, especially kitchen ones. I can see I shall be using this for drying fruits and herbs in the summer when they are cheap. Then it will be home made fruit muesli. I normally don’t eat it because it is so sweet ( not dietary,I just don’t like sweet things very much ) but Bob loves it and has it daily. Other Lidl buys this week are a food blender to replace the one that broke in the autumn and a two person size cast iron ? Casserole dish. My Pyrex ones are slowly breaking. I do love the Lidl middle isles

Have a good day all

[Stanley]

I have an idea that Pyrex can only handle a certain number of heat cycles Sue/ Mine seem to explode when they reach a certain stage....
I like the sound of the dehydrator Sue.... the only way I know to do it is drying in the oven.



A nice hour and a quarter in the shed.
I set the bed and base castings on one side and started on the other castings beginning with the cylinder. The first job was to put the vise back up on the VM and tram it in using a piece of ground gauge stock to magnify any errors. Then I started milling the faces of the cylinder casting starting with the valve face and the flanks and then moving on to the length. At closing time I have one end of the casting milled to size and tomorrow I shall start on the other end.

[Sue]

Stanley I have one pyrex dish at home that was a wedding present thus nearly 52 years old. Its still perfect but for a faded design but my newer clear ones seem to chip at the slightest knock

[Stanley]

Yes, I have a Pyrex Bowl that my mother had right through the war, so it's been in use for at least 80 years and is still in one piece. Perhaps Joblings were better at making the glass in those days....