Today I shall be Mainly...

[Stanley]

[Marilyn]

I have all the original feet and attachments for my old machine, Sue ( plus all the original paperwork). I soaked the tarnished feet in CLR..But it didn't do much good! I have done some sewing on the machine, but I find the feet terribly narrow and with poor grip to the dogs, meaning one has to work hard to control the fabric. Hard work indeed. Lovely to use for the hell of it. The stitching was beautiful. But hard work.
I still have the lap quilt I made on the vintage machine...

[Big Kev]

Getting my car back following the 'uninsured driver' incident. Fortunately my insurance covers me in this instance with NCD unaffected nor any excess to pay.
The car was deemed a category N total loss but I retained the salvage, got it repaired and I'm still a four figure sum up on the deal...
It's not perfect but it'll do for a 16 year old car.

A great outcome, well done. 16 years old? I'd be very happy with that car.

It is (was) in very good condition for an old high mileage car, I'll hang onto it for a bit.

[PanBiker]

Continuing with Jack's ring main installation.

[plaques]

PanbBiker, I'm assuming that the ring mains are connected to a single consumer unit which has a common bus bar for the different circuits. I mention this because I felt I was getting signal loss with the powerline connectors having to make two trips round the mains circuits from bedroom (starting point) to living room (end point). If there had been two separate consumer units the powerlines may have struggled to pair up. Does this make sense?

[Big Kev]

If there were two consumer units the powerline adapters would only work in sockets from the same consumer unit, it's a physical connection.

[PanBiker]

Yes of course, power-line adaptors rely on a common circuit, otherwise you would be able to connect them between properties which would be a bit of a problem. Conventionally you should only have one consumer unit per property so everything is connected to the same bus. Jack had the old fuse box replaced by a 12 way consumer unit when we did the first phase of the new kitchen install with its own ring, oven feed and a separate feed for the combi boiler, plenty of scope for the rest of the house. We will put another ring upstairs at some point.

We have got all the new cables in today which involved cutting a few more boards for access to the outlet points. Helped by a couple of 3mtr thin fibreglass poles from a long gone pop up tent which were ideal for cable pulling under the floor. I retrieved these from under the hedge in the garden at our daughters, thought they might come in handy for lightweight antenna construction. Not long before we can ask Glen to come along and plaster up. Jack has a feature fireplace constructed in brick and partially plastered but with the main range exposed as is. This is going to be plastered over for cleaner lines so we picked up both rigid (for the verticals) and plastic angle bead (for the curve) which will need fixing as well before Glen comes along. All the paper will need to come off followed by redecorating which is down to myself and Sally as well, things you do for your kids, especially when they work out of town and only have the weekends to do the stuff themselves.

[Stanley]

At the moment it's getting over a coughing fit caused by some of my pot of tea going down the wrong way!
Good job your Jack isn't relying on me....
I might potter in the shed for a while, nothing on until I put my clock back together. Then a bit more Karl Marx.
French GP this evening?

[PanBiker]

I have done your coil Stanley. There is continuity but I cant guarantee functionality. Very fiddly job, there must be thousands of turns on that former, the wire is about the size of a human hair. I had a job seeing it even with my readers and bench magnifier. Anyway, managed to get some of the enamel scraped off, tinned and wrapped round the termination lead and soldered off. I have reused the original plastic wrap to sandwich the outer connection between the two layers, (which I think was the original arrangement for the outer connection) and then over wrapped with insulation tape to secure it. I have remade the terminal connections and put new sleeving on each lead while I had the terminals off. The leads are quite fragile as they are fine stranded cable. Not enough purchase on the remaining leads to attach new ones. You will need to be careful when you refit. As it's a mains coil, I would stand back when you switch on for the first time. Unless you have a Variac that you can use to bring the voltage up slowly. I used to have one, but no more unfortunately. I'll pop round with it in-between my Open Reach blokes.

[Sue]

I have all the original feet and attachments for my old machine, Sue ( plus all the original paperwork). I soaked the tarnished feet in CLR..But it didn't do much good! I have done some sewing on the machine, but I find the feet terribly narrow and with poor grip to the dogs, meaning one has to work hard to control the fabric. Hard work indeed. Lovely to use for the hell of it. The stitching was beautiful. But hard work.
I still have the lap quilt I made on the vintage machine...

I have managed to clean most of the machine although some metal parts are rather rusty. The accessories I have are very rusty and I think beyond renovation. Bob is going to try to remove surface dust and rust using an ultra sonic bath but I really don’t think they will be useable. The basic foot seems ok and cleaned up quite well. Later this week I shall tackle the wheel and handle mechanisms if we can manage to undo the screws. Then it will be oiling before I give it a trial run.

[Stanley]

The coil was always a long shot Ian. Thanks for trying!
Sue you might be surprised by the old machine, they have a lot of redundancy built into them!
As usual, having a lazy day! That seems to be the norm these days. The immunotherapy certainly slowed me down.... It doesn't bother me, I'm glad to be where I am!

[Stanley]

Having a quiet day.... I haven't got much energy these days. It doesn't worry me, just a natural consequence of the mileage and recent treatments I think. I am just glad to be here and still walking!
A bit of cooking at the moment..... Someone has to do it!

[Sue]

Expecting a phone call from the GP this morning re my blood test and statins, then its yoga before lunch if he calls early enough. This afternoon we are off to Stratford on Avon for a couple of days to meet up with a cousin and family from America who is on holiday in the UK. Its a family meal tomorrow evening with Julia, Ed and the girls joining us after school/work from Coventry. Claire and Adam and Erin can’t make it due to work and school. Bob and I have met Sheila once before when visiting my cousin Herb in California. She is Herbs niece. I found these people through my genealogy research.

[Marilyn]

Stanley. When did you last have a blood test? You may have Anaemia. ( hard to believe as your diet is largely meat based, but if you are not taking in enough Vitamin C it can still happen). Get your Iron levels checked. They can do it with a finger prick nowadays.
Sue, I met a distant cousin in York several years ago. We met at a cafe, as I didn't want her to feel invaded or uncomfortable (after all, we were total strangers)...but I found her delightful. Found her on Ancestry...

[Cathy]

Ditto.. Yes Stanley , get a blood test asap (!).

[plaques]

I'm sure Stanley has regular blood tests. The normal 'Well Man' tests cover most of the blood factors, red cells, white cells, lymphocytes and what you had for tea. As a general statement as you get older you feel tired more easily. Not rocket science.

[Marilyn]

Yes...but Stanley has been expressing he is more tired since the bladder treatment. That is a new thing. I think it warrants a finger prick.

[Sue]

Sue, I met a distant cousin in York several years ago. We met at a cafe, as I didn't want her to feel invaded or uncomfortable (after all, we were total strangers)...but I found her delightful. Found her on Ancestry...


Funny, it was York where I met Herb for the first time, in this case found through a contact on a google search, that was 2001. We have become great friends visiting each others home every now and again

[Stanley]

Ladies, P is right, I have regular comprehensive blood tests. One of the known consequences of BCG immunotherapy is fatigue. It was a lot worse when I was actually in the full treatment. It will no doubt increase a bit when I have the maintenance treatments over the next three Tuesdays.... Par for the course!
I will be having a struggle with the clock now Ian has repaired the coil....

[Marilyn]

Fair enough.

Had a mid afternoon walk around the garden centre today, in full sunshine. Made a pleasant change.

[Stanley]

It's a price worth paying......

[Marilyn]

Hubby had his Cystoscopy last Monday. All clear. He goes to yearly checks now and he already knows the date and time for next June! ( as I said, he gets his next appointment handed to him before he has pulled his trousers back up..)

[Stanley]

Give him my best regards.....

[Wendyf]

Good news Maz.

[PanBiker]

Excellent Maz.