Tony_S

Juniors name remained lodged in my memory but I never bothered to find out why. Thank you. I wonder if I will ever get a chance to demonstrate my knowledge. We don’t go to pub quiz nights but I am sure I would enjoy them, though one that was on in a local pub where we went for a meal had some rounds where I would have scored zero.

My latest ex GWR model is in a rather attractive lined crimson lake livery.

There isn’t much non green field building land round here. Most developments now are flats or apartment buildings where a small business or a couple of bungalows with big gardens previously occupied the land. There are two sorts of apartment buildings “executive development “ and “retirement”. Executive means near the railway station with communal gym in basement. Retirement means alarm pull cords and a communal lounge area.

I think I may have once confused arthropods and orthopods. Fortunately the person I was speaking to thought I was being amusing rather than stupid.

Well even space flights with multiple redundant systems can go wrong. Once our Waitrose order van was crash damaged and the order was delayed but I wouldn’t criticise them. I think if @zarniwhoop is able to order his white asparagus from Ocado it will be despatched. It could of course be snatched from the air by an aggressive gull as it is carried to the front door…

Happy birthday. I can remember the TV series but I suspect I was in the room while my parents watched it rather than actively watching it. I do remember the theme tune and also being intrigued that one of the actors had Jr after his name despite being an adult. Isn’t it odd what gets recalled.

The technician from the solar power installers has been and gone. Nice chap, explained why he was replacing a couple of items in the fuse box , checked all our voltages and made sure our inverter had all its updates. We had a chat about car chargers and air source heat pumps and he was on his way. Next big excitement of the day will be the food arriving at midday. Tony

Though because Ocado use huge depots instead of local supermarkets to fulfill your order we have found them to be very reliable. The only problem we had was a robot error that packed frozen Yorkshire puddings instead of frozen croissants. With Ocado if you can order it, it gets delivered. Waitrose substitutes are things like perhaps an ordinary cucumber substituted for the organic free range, ethically sourced cucumber we of course order.

Evening all. The Moderna vaccine after effects have gone now and I feel normal (well, normal for me) again. I went out and gave the garage another sweep so that the solar power system technician doesn’t get bits of pink foam on his clothes. He will only be here for 30 minutes checking everything is ok. The pink foam was from some scenic carving for the model railway layout in the garage. It doesn’t spread as much as the bobbly expanded polystyrene but it can still be messy. Access to the batteries and inverter was still as it was when we had another battery fitted recently so I didn’t need to move much and there is nothing stored near the inverter and batteries . As the inspection is only 30 minutes I don’t think the roof panels get inspected. I assume if they haven’t fallen off and are generating the correct voltage they are ok. Tony

Aditi’s Mum lives in a 2 bedroom penthouse flat. It is on the third floor of a purpose built building. It has a very large main bedroom with a spacious en suite. The lounge dining room is huge. The kitchen has plenty of workspace and enough space for a table for kitchen meals. There are roof lights so rain noise is higher than in a normal building and pigeons tap dance on them too. The managing agents keep the communal garden neat but seem to leave the external maintenance longer than I would like. The second bedroom and main bathroom are adequate and there ismamroofmterrce where MiL can have a few plants. For someone with limited mobility when the lift is faulty (not often but lack of spares had caused long repair times. Parking is in dedicated spaces in an underground car park. Is the proposed view from the garden apartment nice? Is it next to a busy road? Aditi was looking at some properties (just out of curiosity, we are not moving) in Northamptonshire near her brother. One of the properties in the “offers over £1 million” section didn’t appear to have a kitchen sink, just a half depth butler sink in the dining room attached to the kitchen! We made a decision some time ago that we will stay here. It is easy to maintain and there would be no problem installing things like stairlifts if we became less mobile. We had all the soffits and fascias replaced with upvc when they started to rot.some years ago. Aditi’s Mum and Dad bought the Enfield penthouse as their property in Nottingham was too big (both house and land) and incredibly expensive to heat. Aditi’s Dad died before they moved. Aditi’s Mum missed living in Nottingham but would have found it difficult to stay there without considerable support.

It will be a mini vacuum cleaner. Then a wallet extraction…

I had my Covid booster(Moderna) yesterday.i woke up this morning not feeling at all well, but the symptoms match those commonly reported following the vaccine. I don’t usually have side effects after Covid vaccines but i think this is my eighth so I must be due for some. The headache went after a couple,of paracetamol and the generally yucky feeling is easing. Nothing planned for today so no great inconvenience. Tony

Robbie had a good final year. The parathyroid calcium problem probably caused the spinal pain that limited his rear end movement. But after gabapentin was prescribed he was like a new dog for a year. The vet did say be prepared, it will stop,working. He had been bouncing about a the park a couple of days earlier. He was 13.

It is all high tech now, no syringes.

Years ago before we had the new boiler our old system was a bit prone to clogging. So,I thought I would take the big radiator from the lounge and flush it in the garden. It was only as it was coming away from the wall that I realised just how heavy a large double radiator was. Also no matter how well I thought I had drained it there was still some sludgy drips escaping. It isn’t a problem now but I am not doing that radiator again. Perhaps a smaller one, but the cleaning and sludge management routine seems to make anything more involved unnecessary.

Were those not the Suffragette colours?

He had to go to the animal hospital for overnight monitoring the first night after the operation and be monitored at the operating vets surgery for a few days. The nurses said he was such an observant dog , he knew where the treats were stored and stared until he got one. He had so many bloodtests he learned to put his paw out so they could take blood from his leg. He had negotiated this I think by making it quite clear they were not going to take it from his neck. I think this was because he really didn’t like the syringe up the nose for kennel cough vaccine. He really was a good dog and was always happy to go to vets apart from the kennel cough.

Robbie had some tumours removed from his parathyroid. His symptoms really only presented as drinking a lot and elevated calcium levels. He had a parathyroid hormone test (frozen blood sample sent to special lab) . The vet removed the tumours, they were malignant but slow growing. Back then the parathyroid blood test for dogs was quite new. I had the same test for my parathyroid and had to have it done at the hospital. Done at outpatients clinics routinely now.

Aditi used to take her geography A level students to Hipposhire for field trips as she wanted them to see somewhere that wasn’t like London. She had previously been to Malham in Yorkshire but it became difficult to book for some reason. Then while she was on maternity leave the college closed down geography (too expensive) so,rather than be unemployed she reinvented herself as a sociology lecturer. This didn’t involve fieldwork so was cheap enough for the college financial managers. At that time she had a 6 month old child, I was ill and unable to work . Then on top of teaching a new subject she had to become acting head of Psychology and teach the classes for a while as two lecturers departed without notice. She had to quickly come up to speed on deviance and abnormal psychology, while desperately hoping the college would employ someone.

And when Columbia is the better option than Venezuela…

The list of places I don’t want to visit for holidays is quite long. Though I am amused at some places I visit frequently in London listed as “no go” areas usually by a certain type of American (though perhaps they are Russian trolls) social media user. My enjoyment of travel is enhanced by Aditi. She is just so enthusiastic about all kinds of thing and overcomes my “I would be quite happy at home”. She has already started “revising “ for Iceland.

We produced 15.6kWh yesterday. It was quite cloudy but with a few really sunny spells . The people who installed our system are coming on Thursday to give it a “health check”as part of their after sales care service. It should be ok as we had an extra battery fitted by them a couple of months ago and they did some update checks and fitted a better WiFi device.

We have been reading about Columbia recently. My brothers friend is travelling to Venezuela to visit her family after living for many years in the UK. Even though she will be entering the country on a British passport the Venezuelan authorities will not allow exit permission to fly to anyone born in Venezuela without a Venezuelan passport even though they are almost impossible to obtain due to shortage of passport making materials. Hence interest in neighbouring countries with bus connections. Though I wouldn’t be as vulnerable as a hippo in Columbia, I looked at the vaccine requirements for cruises that visit that area and there are a few recommended live vaccines I can’t have. I am quite happy to watch wildlife documentaries about Central and South America and limit my travel to less hazardous (disease) places.

@PupCam vaccine news! As I entered the jabbing suite, I vaguely waved by empty box of immunosuppressive medication and the pharmacist thanked me and proceeded to the allergy questions. I also told her despite my other medication I didn’t bleed after vaccine jabs. She said I had had rather a lot. As she seemed nice I asked about Aditi, age 70,various health conditions and living in the same house as a vulnerable person. Scheduled for the Autumn booster it would seem. I think Aditi is going to investigate the private option at Boots but at the moment it seems to be no local availability (unless you count Cambridge as local) but I expect that will change.

I think for my overall health I am better off avoiding people than cake. Tony