Disappearing waist?

Yay, Let joy be unconfined. I have gone down a waist size.

For more years than I can remember, I have bought and worn trousers with a waist measurement of 36". Some months ago, I bought a pair of cords with a 34" waist as I felt I was getting slimmer. Having bought them, I found that wearing them, while possible, was not exactly comfortable. This morning, after my trousers got distinctly damp while cycling back from swimming, I tried them on again. They fit with room to spare and are comfy without any scrunched up waistband round my middle.

It is perhaps time to review the trousers in my wardrobe and look in the shops selling men's clothes to see what else I might like in this size.

Full of good intentions to make up for the eating and drinking of Christmas, I opened the garage door this morning to find that my beloved Brompton had a puncture in the rear tyre. Undaunted, I walked to the pool. I swam. I wheezed. I have had a cold for the best part of two weeks, and my ability to gulp in air and turn the oxygen contained in it into energy is depleted. After 30 lengths, I dragged my wheezing frame out of the water and under the shower. The good news was that there were very few of the regular early morning swimmers there. I think there were 4 people in the pool when I arrived.

The Brompton puncture was duly repaired when I got home, but I'm in need of serious training. What a wreck!

Slow, but getting there.....

Our twins each have a "first" car. One has what was my mother's car and the other has a small Seat that I bought via e-Bay. Both of them have arrived home this Christmas with niggling problems. With a childlike belief that I can help, they have mentioned these problems to me.

The Seat had two. The first turned out to be a burnt out fuse, so once that was replaced, the windscreen wipers worked again and the second was a rear hatchback lock that was frozen. Parking it so that the rear door was in the sunshine for a morning cured that.

The small Nissan had a non-functioning heated read window. After the fuse was checked and found to be OK, the connectors were taken off, and the terminals rubbed with an abrasive cloth to remove the layer of oxide that had built up. Upon re-assembly the heated rear screen worked fine.

Both the boys were highly appreciative of my efforts and it is satisfying to be able to pass on simple tips that will avoid the cost of involving a profession mechanic. One just hopes that the my beloved sons will remember the steps we have taken together to resolve these problems when they come to tackle any further hiccups and try the simple things first. However, I fear I have not heard the last conversation that starts "Dad, I have a small problem with my car......."

Lots of Love, Guys.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day has passed in a haze of being pleasant to everyone. It was got off to a good start by a lie-in, rising for about9:45 and me cooking breakfast - baked eggs in ramekins lined with smoked salmon. Everyone seemed to like it. Then we went for a walk to the nearest park where the adults walked round the cycle track and the students swung on swings designed for 8 year olds.

The walk home was followed by lunch - fillet steak and all the trimmings. Turkey is tomorrow when there are a few more people here to help eat it. None of us could manage pudding, so we sat down to watch Star Trek on DVD and hey presto, pudding appeared half way through it. By the time that finished, and those who wanted one had had a cup of tea, it was nearly 6 o'clock and time for Doctor Who.

As I'm not a Doctor Who fan, I have decided not to watch that and set the dishwasher running so we have some clean plates for tomorrow.

It has been a splendid day, and I am so thankful for our good fortune. There are so many who will not have had a day such as ours. The really poor, the homeless, those who have had to work etc., may they too have the best Christmas they can and may their troubles ease in 2010.

I'd avoid me, if I were you

I am confined to the house today. I have a cold. I am not a good patient. As I walk round the house, I have to pick up the small heaps of used tissues and put them in the bin. It is safe to say that I am not very good company.

Snow

It has snowed very lightly here. The traffic is moving without any difficulties, and yet the authorities are seen and heard on all the broadcast media saying "Don't travel unless you have to". Surely this is a grossly irresponsible move. In order to keep the economy and country moving, people need to go to work, college and school. As the weather is bad, they should allow more time to get there. What we don't need is the message that if you fancy a day not at work, school or whatever, today is the best day to skive off.

Shame on the powers that be and the media for peddling such a unhelpful message

Traffic and Blue Lights

You can tell that Christmas is approaching. Forget the lights, just look at the traffic. Solihull has reached the point of gridlock. We live on quite a busy road and the queues in the morning and the evenings stretch past our house in one direction in the morning and in the other in the evening.

The emergency services have been busy here today with lots of blue lights to be seen. I do hope that people have not ruined their Christmas before it really starts and my respect for those people who answer these calls for help ratchets up another notch. I'm certain that I couldn't do it.

Back in the West Mids

We arrived back in Solihull to find a load of post and 5 messages on the answerphone. The post contained two letters from friends which they send out with their Christmas cards. which reminded me that I still have to write our Christmas cards. A job for this evening while Jini is at the theatre with her God-daughter.

Lincoln

We went to Lincoln. It looked interesting, we shall have to go back when the Castle is open. Mind you, I'd recommend The Old Bakery Restaurant to anyone. Excellent lunch.

Underfloor heating

Our new house has underfloor heating on the ground floor. I can't get used to walking round in my socks and feeling the warmth coming up to my feet from the floor. A weird sensation, but one that I enjoy hugely. Every home should have it.

I wonder....

If cars can be astonished or frightened, ours probably is tonight. It is spending its first night in a garage all alone, except for my Brompton folding bike!

To Spalding and back

We've been to stay in our new house. The route there is now becoming familiar and the Land Rover seems to know her way there without too much input from me. We seem to have a problem with the heating which will get its second visit on Friday.

We are getting adept at packing stuff into and taking stuff out off the box trailer and the old Rover seems not to notice it is on the back once we have got going. A visit to IKEA is on the agenda tomorrow and then it is back to Spalding again for the weekend.

Our New House

Well, strictly speaking it is not new, but it's new to us. It became ours on Tuesday, so on Wednesday morning with a Land Rover full of stuff and towing the box trailer, we mooched eastwards to explore our new house.

Two things will stick in my memory about our first visit. Firstly, the boiler would not light and we spent a very cold night huddled together in the bed we had taken. Fortunately the fire in the sitting room was fully functional and there was an immersion heater so we had some heat and lashings of hot water. A phone call to my ex-employers got a Service Engineer to call and withing 15 minutes, he had the boiler working and the house slowly warming up. So, Mick joins Gary as one of our heroes.

Secondly having introduced ourselves to our neighbours for 2 houses each side, we were struck by their niceness. They are a genuinely welcoming group, one of whom who lent us a portable gas heater to take the chill off the bulk of our house.

Some photos:


two of the front



























One of the garage:

it's beginning to look like a muddle already.













The back of the house in sunshine...















The sitting room....















the kitchen....















and two views of the conservatory..































That's it for now.

A good number and a bit of a gap.

Yesterday was my birthday and it passed in a relaxed and pleasant fashion. Most of the Children phoned to wish me a Happy Birthday and my beloved cooked me a delicious dinner, while I took pleasure from reading a most enjoyable detective story.

I am now 61, and I'm minded to remain 61 for the rest of my life. It seems a respectable number and implies a decent degree of wisdom and experience without seeming unduly ancient. Nothing annoys me more than little old ladies who pepper their conversation with "I'm 84, you know!" Who cares? If I ever do this then I hope someone will dispatch me to the hereafter very promptly.

I am looking forward to having the kids home again for Christmas. It has been nice, not having them, but after 30+ years of having them around, I miss them more than I thought I would. It is rather like having a hole in a tooth, one's tongue keeps feeling the offending tooth, but one can do nothing but wait for the dentist to fix it. After they have been home for a week, I've no doubt that I shall be longing to see the back of them again.

I thought we'd never get there.

At long last, yesterday we exchanged contracts on the house we are buying. It becomes ours on Tuesday, so today as been busy so far getting money to the solicitors for the balance. However, that has been done, so there should be no more hiccups. Now all we have to do is move some stuff over there.

What a nice lady

Two years ago, I was asked by a friend who happened to be a Headteacher, if I would be prepared to audit the school fund accounts. I was happy to agree to do so.

The job of bookkeeper had just been taken on by a new lady who works part time at the school. On the days she does work, she acts as doorkeeper/receptionist and bookkeeper. If there were ever two roles that do not go together it is these two. When counting money and adding entries to the accounts book, one needs a period of uninterrupted time in which to concentrate on what one is doing. The school bookkeeper does not get that because she is constantly interrupted by the buzzer and the need for her to activate the door opener.

The poor lady has had no experience of keeping a set of books and no training, other than some mentoring by me. In this set of circumstances it is not surprising that she has made a number of errors. It is so unfair of any organisation to expect people to do a job without giving them the skills and tools with which to do it. I do hope I get the chance to tell the Headteacher and the Governors that they are being so unfair to this nice lady.