I was on SM pretty much from the start. But more often than not I signed out and had a month or two away every now and then as I just didn’t need it.
I was a child of the 70’s and if someone wanted to call me an arse or show me a picture of their dinner they’d have had to walk a few miles or so to do it.
Facebook was a joke, that was ditched years ago.
Instagram was taken over by talentless nobodies calling themselves “influencers” I was that impressed that I ditched that too.
I go on Twitter or X or whatever they call it now, every once in a while but it’s quite a horrible experience. I use it to follow a few music sites, or technical sites but you can’t help but notice the utter hate and disrespect people have for each other on there. It really is an utter cesspool of depravity and to be honest I just don’t need or want that in my life.
I use WordPress as a blog presence and I quite like that.
So no, I’m not a great fan of SM, my choice, you may love it and good on you, whatever floats your boat I say.
I guess I’m probably not that social. Close the door on the way out please 😂
I’m back on nights tonight and I fancied a lay in, but it seems the wife wanted the same. Eyes closed, a sleepy glance to the right to see if my wife was awake. She wasn’t.
It’s going to have to be me isn’t it? Wait a few more minutes. Still no movement.
The dog has clocked I’m awake and he wants to go outside now. Damn it’s going to have to be me.
Dog in garden, two cups of tea to the bedroom and the wife is miraculously awake. She’s better at this game than me. 😂
Here I was complaining about the weather due to a garden project I was undertaking and the time frame my wife has kindly put on it.
It was being severely hampered by the weather and on the odd occasional day I was able to do bits but the time scale was moving ever closer.
Well I finally managed to get the digging complete with a couple of inches more of mud removed and made as level as possible before more rain moved in.
Then I had an 800kg bag of MOT type one sub base layer delivered and this went down in a few hours and I was then able to hire a wacker plate to get it down nice and solid and even all over. I’ve put a wooden edge in as well that will eventually have some bare root Hornbeam hedging put in alongside it to form a softer border.
Sub base and wacker plate
But it rained again for days 🤷♂️
Pavers arrived
In the meantime myself and the wife went to a local garden centre and got an absolute bargain with the pavers, these were delivered the next day and I was able to place them roughly where I wanted them to be before cementing. Then guess what? Yes you are right it has rained pretty much from the 28th March right up to a few days ago the 11th April.
Pavers roughly in place
We’ve had some sun the last couple of days and the surface of the garden has dried off a bit. The patio area has dried off quite considerably so on the 14th April I was finally able to get all the pavers cemented into position, I was able to do a first rough cut of the grass and generally have a little tidy up. There was an awkward period when the works supervisor (Alfie, our dog and head of security) intervened and decided to sit on a paver I was cementing, but talks took place and strike action was avoided when a chewy treat was supplied.
Industrial action was avoided
I’ve ordered an 800kg bag of pea shingle to finish the job so I’m hopeful the time scale will be met. it was a good day.
Pavers cemented in place
This morning the 15th we have had torrential rain, hailstones and a thunderstorm, woo am I pleased I got that cementing done yesterday, you bet I am. I just hope it had time to cure to a state where the down pour hasn’t affected it too much. I’ll check it out later, and I’ll just have to refrain from using the pavers for another 48hrs or so.
Note: I’ve just checked and the cement has set nicely, I’ll leave it another day and it should be all good 👍 we now await the pea shingles arrival.
Fast forward to the 17th after yet more rain has fallen and I now have 800kg bag of pea shingle occupying part of my driveway. I have ordered far too much, however it means I will be able to prioritise a couple of other garden projects that I have recently put on the back burner.
Guess what? More rain but I’m not giving up until these stones are in place.
A couple of hours later I’ve put the shingle in place, first a layer that I’ve then stamped down and then another layer on top to bring it all up to level across all the pavers. I must admit it has come up quite well.
Pea shingle in place
I’ve finished it off with a small circular paver for the wife’s stone toadstool that has been a feature in any garden we have occupied since we first met, as well as some decorative fencing and lighting with 15 newly planted Hornbeam hedgerow plants. I have a vision of having a nice hedgerow line down here within the next couple of years as well as being a natural source of drainage for the this part of the garden, that naturally gets very wet due to neighbouring gardens being concrete wastelands.
Hornbeam hedgerow and decorative fencing
I’m very pleased with the result, it’s on time and the wife is now off my back, and she’s very happy, phew 😥
Thanks for following this little project, stay safe and stay happy.
Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow.
In the past I’ve struggled with anger at times, not a very nice trait I inherited from my father, not a very nice person I must admit. I’ve tried hard all my life to not be like him and 90% of the time I am successful, but just once every now and then I let myself down and I instantly regret it.
The good thing is that when my anger surfaces it does not get taken out on anyone, I haven’t hit anyone in anger since my school years, it’s usually inanimate objects such as walls and this is where I have learnt one of my most valuable lessons.
I was fixing a heavy wood cabinet at home, I’d been working nights and I was tired, in theory I should have gone straight to bed and rested. Instead I decided to continue, managed to hit my thumb with a hammer, used some ripe old language and then decided to land a right hander square on a solid wood door.
It transpires that after suffering quite a bit of discomfort in my hand I had broken the knuckle on my little finger, also known as a boxers fracture.
Busted
What lesson have I learned I hear you ask? Well to be honest when I feel any anger coming on now I just think of my hand and the anger subsides.
Anger is not worth it and is a waste of energy, it causes pain and upset and no one deserves to witness that.
I was a fool, probably still am but I’m now an educated fool.
What place in the world do you never want to visit? Why?
Well this is another one that’s not going to be hard to answer. I have a friend who lives in the Melbourne area of Australia and thanks to him and the regular pictures he sends me I shall not be visiting that country anytime soon.
Now I don’t know if he’s doing this deliberately to keep me away, if that is the case he has succeeded.
Australia looks a beautiful place and I’m sure it is. However I am an arachnophobe to the point of absolute terror not just being scared. You should see me going into my garden shed here in the Uk, my wife says I look like the Pope giving a blessing as I have a large stick and I’m waving it about so I don’t get caught in any web.
Massive Spider – Australia style
It all goes back to when I was younger and my parents would force my elder brother to take me out to play with him and his mates. They of course used to use and abuse me as youngsters do, and one of the things they loved doing was stuffing all kinds of creatures down my neck and watching me scream and run around, I really was a bag of nerves back then. I’m not much better now especially in the presence of spiders.
To be honest it seems everything in Australia wants to kill you. If it isn’t many varieties of spiders, it’s the snakes. If not the snakes it’s the waterborne animals such as Crocs. Even the bloody Kangaroos want you to fight you!
And then there’s the heat. If the local wildlife doesn’t get you, then the heat does. I like a little warmth just like the next guy, but being a well done piece of meat doesn’t appeal to me.
Nope, I’ll be giving Australia a miss for the rest of my life if that’s ok.
Describe a positive thing a family member has done for you.
Morning all.
When reading these prompts that pop up on a daily basis I can pretty much always relate these questions to the lady lying by my side. It is patently obvious that if she had not intervened earlier in my life I quite simply would not be here today. She is my life and I owe her all of my life.
However that would be too simple. I try to look at other aspects of my life and individuals in my family and I then realise that truthfully not one of them has done anything positive for me. I guess I’ve not done much for them either as we are quite a fragmented family not living in each other’s pockets as such. My wife’s family are different though, they are so close knit it’s unbelievable. I look at them like a family of Meerkats, always together and looking out for each other.
Meerkats – picture courtesy of Unsplash
I have a great relationship with my Brother in law and he’s always there for guidance, he’s also got a fantastic range of tools and he’s my go to when I need something specific to complete a job, and 99% of the time he has the right tool. He’s also my drinking buddy who I chew the fat with so I guess he fits the bill, as I need talking to occasionally and he’s the positive one in that case.
I hope you are all planning to have a wonderful day. Try and do something positive for a family member today. I have some tools to return to my Brother in law 😂
I love these easy questions. I’m not a foodie and don’t judge an establishment on its ability to produce poncey overpriced food that would struggle to feed an anorexic budgie.
I like good portions of old fashioned good food and probably tend to aim more towards Grill establishments rather than posh restaurants.
Yialos beach grill – Latchi
My absolute favourite establishment on this planet sits in the South west on the island of Cyprus in the town of Neo Chorio, Latchi and is called the Yialos beach grill house.
Akamas peninsula
As stated it’s on the beach with the most stunning view of the Akamas peninsula that let’s you view the most stunning sunsets in the early evening, it’s like watching natures personal show of beauty just for your enjoyment….and then you get to eat and drink in the most convivial atmosphere where food is spectacular and service is personal and friendly.
Yialos beach grill – Latchi
Food is Cypriot/Mediterranean, lots of meat and unbelievably tasteful vegetables, along with a free portion of desert made by the elderly lady that runs the kitchen. It’s probably the most relaxing restaurant I have been to in my life, whenever we go back to Cyprus this place features high on the list of things we do, and to top it all off the price is extremely reasonable.
I’ve purchased the item below from EBay. Got a bit of a discount and ended up paying £7:18 GBP in total. I need a small radio for listening to the sports commentary at work and thought this would be a simple enough project for me.
Sony ICF-480L 3 Band Receiver FM MW LW Portable Radio FAULTY Sold as SPARES
The unit is FAULTY. It powers on but the sound quality is poor and the volume is NOT loud. There is NO mains adaptor included. Sold as SPARES.
EBay
Cosmetically it looks a little tatty but a good clean up and touch up with a Sharpie pen might see to that, maybe a new potentiometer or just some contact cleaner might sort the sound issue out.
Sony ICF-480L
Anyway I will await delivery and post an update of the condition and repairs I will need to carry out shortly. You can see the assessment and repair of this radio here: Sony ICF-480L 3 band radio assessment and repair
I’ve got a bit of a queue of repairs on cameras still to come as I’m awaiting parts / components for them. So keep an eye out for a flood of updates on previous posts over the coming weeks.
By then I will be well into my 60s marching on quickly to my 70s. I sincerely hope I am well settled in retirement by then, ten years is a long time and a lot can happen along the way so I must admit I do have some trepidation regarding this.
Hopefully All those I love will be with me around that time but I do suspect one or two may fall along the way, who knows it may even be me! Looking on the bright side, I would love to be living in a nice warm country so I very much suspect that if I want this, I’m not going to be living in the UK.
The Mediterranean
Work is becoming quite a bind. We have a new manager and he is going through our entire team one by one and gradually wearing them all down. Work is not a place of enjoyment anymore. I don’t mean enjoyment in the playful sense I mean enjoyment in the fact that i have a lot of colleagues who I really respect and enjoy working with, in our eyes we are a fantastic team. We get things done, with little bother or worry for the management team. We self manage and we think we do it quite well but this guy seems to think he knows it all, he doesn’t and he’s fragmenting our team making it bad for all and spreading bad feeling.
I just really really want to be retired by then I’m kind of hoping I’ll be retired in the next two to three years and I’m really looking forward to that. I’ve worked hard all my life as have other members of my family and I think it’s the least we deserve to take our foot off of the gas and slow ourselves down a little. We can do what we want to do, whether that be travelling, hobbies or just taking our time with things, that’s what I’m looking forward to the most. It won’t be the same if I haven’t got those I love around me and I’ve said that this question brings trepidation into my sights, but the future comes whether we like it or not and we have to handle it as best as we can, so I guess the only thing I can do is prepare myself for this period of my life.
I must look forward and try not to be too worried about things. We all work hard to achieve things in life but we can’t go on at that pace for ever. We’ve earned the right to take it easy and we must allow the younger generations to take the reins, whatever we think of their attitudes and decisions, its progress however you view it.
I like a challenge like most people. But this listing note above should have put me off, but no, I have the equipment, I have the time but do I have the patience to see this repair through. The guy wanted more than I was prepared to pay for such a camera, I got him down to less than a quarter of his original asking price paying just £6 gbp for this camera. Hopefully if it all goes bottoms up I’ll at least have some spares that can be used, if the corrosion has got to the circuitry it might be a different story.
Fuji Finepix S1500
On the market in 2009 this camera was amongst the digital assault from the far east that earned the title of being a “Bridge Camera”. Unfortunately this was not one of the better versions but however was well received by the casual snap shot photographer. I had one back in the day and that was my introduction to digital photography. This particular camera will go to a young family member who is getting into photography, if I can get it working.
Battery compartment corrosionFuji Finepix S1500 base Battery cover corrosion
The plan with this one is to get it open and do a full review on just how deep the “serious battery damage” goes. I’m not too hopeful, but sometimes luck does go your way.
Keep an eye out for updates when it is received and the work I will be doing to restore it to working order.
Foxes Den 
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