… my musings on, er, "stuff"
Track of the week 27/3/16
A mix of sun & showers today made this an appropriate tune for track of the week.
Always reminds me of my first few weeks of IOT (basic training when I joined the RAF). I have a recollection of this belting out through the block one Sunday afternoon after we had got back from some march/run/nav ex through the local Lincolnshire countryside. Have always liked the song since. Happy days!
Pick of the week 27/3/16
Two for the price of 1 this week!
(Deck & Trellis – sounds like the name of a pub)
A beautiful day on Friday (Good Friday), first day of my hols, and an opportunity to begin building my deck. The pic above just shows the planning phase – at this stage nothing has been dug, or fixed. By the end of the day the first three pads were in place and the joists cut to size. Then, the next day, the rain came and outdoor work has been delayed since.
Also included this pic of me taking down a trellis panel as the deck will just overhang the bed. Removing it should connect the two halves of the garden into one space. Hopefully, when all is completed, one would forget that the trellis was ever there, so I though it important to include a pic of its destruction as a reminder of what went before.
Pick of the week 20/3/16
On Friday ran a colour run for Sports Relief.
One of my goals, targets and aims was to swim the channel. Since writing those targets I’ve had some doubts as to how far I actually need to swim. I surpassed the 960 lengths I originally calculated a week or so ago but I now don’t think it far enough.
Anyway, I am now claiming to have reached France, having swum 1064 lengths, which equates to 35.1 Km or 21.9 miles. The official minimum swim distance is 21 miles, so I reckon I’ve done it.
Loving the swimming at the moment, typically swim 30 lengths in circa 23mins 30 ish secs. It seems to ease my knee injury, I reckon I’ve swum more because I’ve run less, and our lack of plumbing over half term meant swimming every day which added to the distance.
Suppose I’d better turn round and swim back now! 5,000 lengths in the calendar year? Now that’s a (new) challenge.
Track of the week 13/3/16
Billy Taylor’s classic. I love it. Listen and enjoy, listen and enjoy.
Pick of the week 13/3/16
Spent a part of the day putting up our gate. Rather proud of the end result.
Blue skies, too! Perhaps Spring is bouncy its way along.
Pick of the week 6/3/16
Mother’s day – my two children with their Mum.
(Looking a bit like a GAP advert against the sheer white of our new kitchen!)
Track of the week 6/3/16
Mother’s Day and it was apt that this popped up in my youTube stream.
Although, I believe, meant as a love song, I always think of my Mum when I hear this – who was going to make things right when they went wrong, who would lift you to the top so you could see, and, should it all fall through, who’d take you home? Mum.
What you gonna do when things go wrong?
What you gonna do when it all cracks up?
What you gonna do when the Love burns down?
What you gonna do when the flames go up?
Who is gonna come and turn the tide?
What’s it gonna take to make a dream survive?
Who’s got the touch to calm the storm inside?
Who’s gonna save you?
Alive and Kicking
One of my all time favourite songs, and all the more so now as it reminds of my Mum, what a great lady she was, and right that we (I) remember her with such a positive, powerful and uplifting song, as that is how I remember her.
Track of the week 28/2/16
From “Setting Sons” by The Jam, the best album ever made.
Not the best track from it, but brilliant nontheless, it makes it onto here as track of the week as it is three years since I was told my “job is at risk of redundancy.”
I’ve some news to tell you, There’s no longer a position for you, Sorry Smithers-Jones.
And so I was Smithers-Jones. I put on the kettle and made some tea, pulled on my slippers and turned on the TV. But I also discovered that there are plenty more fish in the sea to fry and, three years on, I’m swimming in much bigger, much better ocean.
Pic of the week 28/2/16
… to fix the shower.
Perhaps not the most glossy of pics but we had our new shower installed on Monday and by Tuesday it was dripping like mad. And this annoyed me.
So I did my research and I drew the conclusion that the problem was centered around the shower cartridge. A replacement cartridge is circa £50, and I had resigned myself to buying a new one and replacing the one installed. But before I did, I thought I’d try a little experiment. I put the shower on full cold and turned it on and off a few times, adjusted the temp, back on full cold, on & off again: my theory being that the problem was probably caused by a bit of grit in the system, or the cartridge just not re-seating properly.
Anyway, it appears to have fixed the problem, so well worth a pic of the week!
I also adjusted the max temp (upwards), see pic below (turn anti-clockwise to increase temp: 90 deg. turn = approx 1 deg temp.)
(for future ref, here is the link to the PDF instructions for the Mira Pronta EV shower)