Haha, what a headline 
I fitted a replacement float value to fix #wontstopflushing toilet DIY ftw!
Had to blog about it, it might just get me started doing this more often
Archive for the ‘photo’ Category
DIY in the toilet (again!)
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
stop messing about in the bubbles and get ready for work!
Saturday, August 29th, 2009
What else can I say?
Urban Forager
Friday, August 14th, 2009I like to get out of the office at lunchtime and if its fine weather I’ll often go for a walk by the river. I’m quite fortunate to work very close to some easy to walk sections of the Five Weirs Walk. In an hour, I can do a nice round trip along the river from Brightside Weir, following the water around the back of the Meadowhall centre, then switch to the canal towpath following the Tinsley flight of locks back to the office. This week the weather has been excellent so I made the round trip on both Tuesday and Wednesday, rolling up your shirt sleeves and feeling the sun on your skin is a tonic after a busy morning in the office. The urge to exercise has also been strong this week, I’m sure in a big way influenced by the brother-in-laws recent health problem.
I’ve, of course, noticed the various plants and trees along the route and was quite disappointed to see that all the figs have been stripped from a couple of trees. I suppose the Meadowhall gardeners have done this to avoid the mess of dropped fruit on the property, it seems a shame though. What they can’t control are the Blackberry bushes along the river and towpaths, there are loads of them and they’re coming into season for picking. On Wednesday I saw a man picking the fruit and thought I would like some of that too!
Here’s a picture of me (my hand actually) on Thursday after I’d spent half an hour gathering fruit. I got a few funny looks from a couple of passers-by but heck what do I care! A nice thing happened too, a couple out for a walk with their 2 young grand-daughters stopped to chat, I mean how often does that happen nowadays? We talked about the fruit, the weather and I gave them directions to get onto the next section of the walk as some of the signs aren’t great.
So there you go, free fruit and a nice warm feeling inside, not a bad way to spend a lunch break, why don’t you get out of the office and see what you can find?
10 Stone 8 Pounds
Monday, July 27th, 2009I’m a bit disappointed with myself this week. I thought I could easily shift a few pounds but looking back I can see why I haven’t.
On Monday we went to the Indian Buffet night at Zeenat, I didn’t pig out though and to be fair we did walk the 2.5miles to the restaurant.
On Wednesday evening we hastily decided a further treat was in order and we went into town. We visited Wokmania taking advantage of a 2 for £10 buffet voucher. We’ve been before and not been too impressed but at that price it cant be bad? Let me tell you it can! The food wasn’t being replenished often, with dried remains being stirred over and over to give new life. The service also didn’t impress, I ordered a bottle of house Rose, a nice little earner for them at a tenner for probably a £2.50 bottle of wine. It arrived after I had finished eating and Paul was just eating his final plate. It was sent back without argument and we left shortly afterwards.
On Saturday I spent a good 4-5 hours in the garden applying Ronseal Perfect Finish Decking Oil. Have you seen the TV advert where they apply it effortlessly and it coats completely as they glide along with the applicator pad? Yeah, right, pull the other one, its bloody hard work getting it into all the grooves! Anyhow, that certainly worked up an appetite for my evening meal, Smoked Haddock, potatoes and mushy peas.
The fish is coated in my own special recipe spicy flour mix then (very) shallow fried. Delicious!
On Sunday I was on Nana-in-law duties, taking Ivy out for breakfast at a cafe in a garden centre she like to visit. I succumbed to a sausage and mushroom cob that wasn’t entirely fat free. It was a nice drive out in the country though so that’s something isn’t it?
this week is the week, I’m deffo gonna lose a few pounds. Only thing is, its Monday again and the Zeenat buffet menu looks like a very tempting selection this week. I’ll let you know if we resist temptation
In which I come clean about being a skinflint, but no more!
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009On Sunday afternoon, halfway through ironing work shirts for Monday, the iron started playing up. The steam stopped coming and instead water started dribbling everywhere. “No problem”, I thought, we’re heading to the airport to pick up the brother and sister in law, we’ll set off early and pick up another at Asda. Doh! Paul reminded me it was Sunday and the 24 hour Asda didn’t live up to the name on the sabbath.
The comment about popping into Asda and buying another one appears quite flippant and really doesnt do justice to my shopping history. I suppose this is the bit where I come clean about how I’ve been such a skinflint with irons over the last few years. We bought a new iron when we moved into the new house and I have to admit I bought a cheap Asda model for less than a tenner. It broke down after two years and I thought to act daft about how old it was, pretend I’d lost the receipt and chance my arm and take it back for a replacement. They didnt sell the same model any longer, no surprise after that time, and even the barcode had been reassigned to a television. After some discussion the nice lady agreed to replace the iron and found what she thought was the discontinued iron product code. I happily agreed that it sounded like the fifteen pounds I paid (hehe) and I left the store with a new Morphy Richards worth twenty quid.
Score so far, two years ironing for £10 and an upgraded iron.
The story doesnt end there, two years later the new iron stopped working, the steam burst button wouldnt press down so I took it back. So in March 2006 they swapped it for a slightly updated version of the same model. At no cost!
Score so far, four years ironing, total cost £15 and in fact this brings us right up to date and the third iron giving up the ghost. So in fact that make the score seven years ironing for £15. How good is that!
Except, after all that I’ve never been that happy with any of those irons. I’m the chief ironer in the house, which is more about my control freakery than anything else, and I just never loved those irons.
I was thinking about this on Monday while looking for a new iron to “pop” out and buy and decided that no longer would I scrimp! I wanted to have an iron that can simply DO the job.
In my search I found this iron and knew I had fulfilled my quest!.
Gaze upon this iron and tell me that it is not a thing of beauty. It is also, if there ever was such a thing, a Mans iron! Look at the colours, it’s like an 1980’s teenage boys duvet cover in black, silver and white. Actually my duvet also had a stripe of red but y’know its almost
The next day I got to try out the new iron and OMG I ironed two shirts in half the normal time. I’m not kidding when I say it is amazing, upon unpacking I was slightly upset to find the steam burst button on the wrong side for my thumb. After ironing two shirts I noticed that I hadnt even had to press the steam button once and results were amazing. Compare this to old irons that needed steam button pressing constantly with poor results.
The morale of the story is here.
I spent quite a lot more than I normally would and was rewarded.
Go figure!
PS. Its an £80 iron but was on sale at Argos for £40 so yay! still saved some cash
10 Stone 13 Pounds
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009So I’ve finally broken the 11 Stone barrier and then this!
Look at that! I’m home alone for one night only and I revert to this sort of thing!
750 calories of pure Sin. But so worth it!
In an effort to balance this, I also roasted Aubergine, Pepper and Onion and made a tasty, healthy soup to have for the next 2 days lunches
Guilty pleasures ;-)
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009Look at that! I’m home alone for one night only and I revert to this sort of thing!
750 calories of pure Sin. But so worth it!
In an effort to balance this, I also roasted Aubergine, Pepper and Onion and made a tasty, healthy soup to have for the next 2 days lunches
Olive you to to work it out.
Sunday, April 19th, 2009I promise, I have some ideas for real posts soon, until then humour me, ok?
I was recently irked by these otherwise wonderful olives.
Lets take a closer look, can you spot the irksome item?
Yes indeed, thats right, the complete absence of the promised pimento paste is quite a dissapointment!
Given that fact, I still have to say that the olives themselves were still fabulous
Box Clever
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009I ventured into the loft the other day, thinking to quickly stow the new LCD TV box in case of needing to return it, should it fail. I’m practical like that, something learned from my Mother the notorious hoarder. Unfortunately this turned into an hours job when I realised that I couldnt find space because of all the other boxes already up there.
Some thing had to be done and since some of these boxes are for things that are well passed their guarantee period, they had to go.
You might think that after this impressive clearout, there would be room up there to dance a dainty tango! Sadly no, there are probably just as many, if not more boxes still up there 
So, can you guess what I’ll be doing next weekend?
Look at them bangers!
Saturday, March 21st, 2009We are off on holiday for a few days, until we get back help yourself to bangers with bubble & squeak mash 
ps. how do you like my gravy volcano type presentation?
Back to the future
Sunday, March 1st, 2009It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m still fuming about something that happened more than 36 hours ago. Allow me to vent, if you will. On Friday night we had a “farewell” celebration, it’s complicated because around a third of the office are being made redundant. The remaining two thirds are being TUPE’d to another employer but doing the same job. I’m one of the “lucky” ones being TUPE’d.
The evening was great, we had a 70’s/80’s theme and everyone made the effort to dress up. Paul and myself were in matching outfits as we were meant to be members of a moderately successful 80’s boyband “Summer of Sunshine”. Will I post a picture here? Our silver jeans deserve a mention I suppose, ok here you go.
We had the whole back-story going, how we’d shortened our name to Sunshine when the other 2 members split in ‘86. How we’d been most recently going down a storm playing the clubs in Benidorm. How we’re hoping to appear on the next series of “Re-born in the USA” but can’t say too much about that. It was a lot of fun, during random songs I’d be like “OMG I love this one, do you remember, we covered this one on our third album!”
So anywho, back to this story. We had the “150 people allowed” room in the Pub to ourselves and you needed a ticket to get in. However, towards the end of the night a few colleagues turned up with friends in tow and they were allowed entry. One of said colleagues, a black guy of African descent, had brought along a blonde haired, blue eyed type that struck up conversation with me. Although a little worse for the numerous sex-on-the-beach cocktails, (what else would an ageing boyband member drink?), I started to feel uneasy about the conversation.
He is talking and seems a nice enough guy, I agree with him on several points about music and other random nonsense. Perhaps sensing my approval on these minor points he presses on to more important issues, immigrants, blacks and other things I cant even repeat here. First off, I’m asking myself if I’m hearing him right, next I’m convinced that I’m in a scene from This is England! I’ feel like I’m in the middle of a B N P training video
Now, bearing in mind I’m stood with this guy on one side and on the other side of me is Paul and 2 very good friends and colleagues who happen to be Indian nationals, I’m getting annoyed. Really very annoyed. Not wanting any trouble I made some vague noises and go to chat to someone else that “I just have to talk to!”
Shortly afterwards I pay a visit to the toilets and find the the same white guy pacing up and down talking animatedly into his mobile phone, “get down here it’s gonna kick off” and other scarey words. He’s accompanied by a couple of mates, including the colleague I mentioned, strange that a black guy is hanging with them but who knows whats going on there.
I left the gents as quick as I could and went straight to my Indian mates, drunkenly trying to explain that we should leave now. One of said friends decided to nip to the loo to check it out and when he re-appeared, also agreed that we should leave now. Outside, we grabbed a passing black cab and dropped them off on the way to our house, so all ended well.
It annoys me that this happened. Perhaps, all the more because we were enjoying a 70s/80s night, a time when Race was a major issue. The harsh reality is that in 2009 it is still a major issue for some people.
I probably should have some sort of profound point to make here at the end but really I’m just ranting about an unfair situation.
I’m left with these questions.
My priority was to safeguard my friends, without causing confrontation, was that wrong?
I worry that I should have done more, confronted them about their attitudes but what would that have achieved and what would have happened?
Return of the Spelling Police
Sunday, February 15th, 2009Just a quickie, I couldn’t resist sharing this one with you all
The Tiempo concession stall in the Meadowhall shopping mall where, despite the urgency of the signs, the sale is still running one week later
Light up my life
Monday, February 2nd, 2009It’s like, totally, the future!
Cooking under a lightbulb.
I shit you not, it is amazing!
Irony
Sunday, February 1st, 2009
StrangeFruit #001 – The Pomelo
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009Yay, number one in a (probably short) series of post featuring exciting, exotic and down right strange fruits.
Todays strange fruit is the Pomelo or Chinese Grapefruit.
Lets take a look.
Unwrapped.
Now we’re getting somewhere, look at the thickness of that pith!
Segments, the size is difficult convey without something in the picture to give scale, these are about 8-9cm long!
Ready to eat.
The verdict?
Really rather good, more like an Orange than Grapefruit, I think that is mostly because of the lack of the bitter edge that you often get with a Grapefruit. The flesh is also very robust, almost meaty, and I mean that in a good way
Will I buy one again?
Probably not, the effort involved in opeing it and removing all the membranes just isnt worth it. I’ll stick with nice easy to peel Clementines
Join me next time when I tackle another extreme strange fruit!
