Ramblings of a Grouch

I usually ask myself this question at this time of year. What's it all about?

Well, Xmas, obviously. The season of excess, when people start to show their true (and often not very welcome) feelings.

I hoped the one good thing to come out of the 2009 recession is for people to scale down the material side of Xmas and concentrate on the other things in life. But so far I'm not seeing it. "I want this. I want that. I must buy this for so-and-so." And all these things are not inexpensive items. Xmas has become a time to show true greed, to show the side of us that says 'I'm giving something expensive so I must be a better person'.

Rubbish!

Maybe I am a true Grouch. We decided not to do presents this year. Almost. Earlier in the year we treated ourselves to a new TV. We watch little TV but we invested in a flat screen HD unit, partly because the old set would need replacing when the UK switches to digital in 2012. And I got a deal on a posh hotel for a couple of nights after the big day just to get away from it all - walking in parks, exploring towns we have never visited, chilling out.

(Birthdays are a little different - we tend to push the boat out and get things neither of us would normally buy or oourselves - last year my nearly-wife got a laptop, I got to drive a Lamborghini).

But Xmas is the time for mass hysteria. The stores are closed for one day this year. At the local Asda, just round the corner, the car park has been jammed solid since Monday morning, traffic tailing back right along the entrance lane, out onto the road and back to God knows where. The 24 hour opening has been shrunk to 22 hours to allow the shelves to be re-stocked.

I walk round at work and hear people saying 'I asked for this, I asked for that, I spent £200 on food yesterday and still haven't finished, I want to win in the works raffle.' (Incidentally, I won a bottle of wine. I don't drink. I gave it to the young lady in the office whose mother will love it.)

And the nicest thing about Xmas for me up to now? My best mate, Bill, rang me out of the blue. At 5.30 am on Monday. To wish me a happy Xmas. Bill lives in Australia and we have never met, but he's a great character, we have some great laughs in an online forum, we can talk seriously if we need to and I would trust him with anything. Everything a best mate should be.

And there he was on the end of the phone, wishing me a happy holiday. Telling me what he plans to do on the 25th. Just saying 'Hi, I'm here and I remembered you'.

What a fantastic start to the week! And I ask, isn't that what Xmas is really all about?

Have a great day, Bill, and enjoy the barbie!

And Happy Holidays and a Happy 2010 to all

The other week my computer died. Saturday evening it worked, Sunday morning it didn't. Nothing. The light came on, the fans whirred. And nothing happened. For someone who spends a fair amount of time helping others with their computer problems this was a blow. But by the following Thursday evening it was all running sweetly again.

Happy ending to a short story? Well no, if I consider the hoops I had to jump through to get there.

I diagnosed the motherboard was the problem, so I set out to order a new one online (fortunately my spare system was connected). So it was off to my favourite online dealer. Found a new board at a reasonable price and popped it in my shopping basket.

But my processor wouldn't fit the new board (it's rather old), so I searched out a new one. In the basket it went.

Oh, and I needed some more modern memory, so that went into the basket of another online dealer. That was fine but the pennies were starting to add up now.

While I was at it I also popped a new power supply in the (now rather heavy) basket as the original one had a rather noisy fan. And that was it. All I needed to do was pay up and wait for the postman.

Yeah, right. Before I made my purchase I needed to log in. Email address? Fine. Password? On the dead computer. Bother!! Enter email address and request a password reset.

Message arrives with a link to the password reset screen, which I go to. "This link has expired. It is only valid for 24 hours". What??! Less than 3 minutes had gone by and it had expired. So I rang Customer Service.

"We're closed at the moment due to the Bank Holiday. Please try again tomorrow". What Bank Holiday? The last one was over 5 weeks ago. So I used my head. I created a new account.

And that worked fine until I selected the delivery address. As this was my first purchase (it wasn't) then delivery could only be made to the credit card holder's address. Which meant I would be out when it arrived. And sure enough, I arrived home at 2 minutes to 6 and UPS had called at 7 minutes to 6. And UPS wouldn't redirect. Aaaarggghhhh!!

As luck would have it the parcel was delivered the next day while I was in, so all ended happily.

And the fact that the new power supply looked like it came out of a nuclear power station of the future - stove enamelled case, mesh round the leads for protection, top quality power connectors (about 30 of them) - is neither here nor there. It works silently. So I'm happy.

And next time I'll make sure I know my password before I order.

... for my mate Bill.

Yes, it's that time again when a man's thoughts turn to pondering life, the universe and everything. Or in Bill's case, probably having a small glass of wine.

Which rather neatly brings me to the Virtual Gift. Ever since Bill sent me a jewel-encrusted pot of Vaseline for a present I have tried (and failed) to outdo him. So I thought this year's Virtual Present should be something to blend in with his character and lifestyle.

So have a Great Day today, Bill, and here's to beer and sheep wherever they may be! (Hiding, if they have any sense!)

.

.

Cheers!!

Haha! I got going on the right hand side and the fun started!

First thing I learned is that a 8mm masonry drill is capable of drilling a 3" hole, 2" deep, in one go. It seems that there was a skim of plaster over, well, nothing at all. However, a quick go with rapid setting cement soon fixed that and I was away again. 3 wall units in a line (after a bit of judicious hacking with a jigsaw to clear the gas pipe in the corner) and they're all up, near enough level and firmly fixed to the wall and each other. I could do this for a living!

Final cupboard was going to be a thin unit mounted at right angles to the corner unit I just put up. Held last unit in place and discovered the door wouldn't open. Can't move unit sideways due to the main doorframe being in the way. Decide I don't want it anyway and clean up the mess I made earlier. Also decide I don't want to do this for a living.

So far I'm still pleased with it - the room seems a little smaller but cosier. And I now have more storage space than things to store - no doubt that will soon change.

One slight problem I noticed last night, though. The gap for the cooker seems a tiny bit smaller than I expected. The cooker still fits in but the grill at the top is awfully close to the wall units. Hey Ho, time to go shopping again ...

Next job will be to finish tiling the floor (must remember to remove the door and reduce the bottom edge to allow for the tile thickness). Then it's in with the base units, tile the walls and we're done!

Well, apart from tiling the walls it's done! No major catastrophes in the latter stages, though there were a few minor niggles.

Such as when I was finishing the floor tiles off and ran out of tile cement. So off to the store I went, picked up a 3-ton tub and went to the checkout. The guy in front is buying 14,000 pieces of guttering. One piece is broken so he has to fetch a replacement. 'You don't need another,' I thought, 'That one's near enough!' as my cement lay setting on my floor. Another piece had no bar code sticker, so he had to fetch another. 'You already have 7 of those, you don't need another' I willed, but to no avail. Eventually I got served. The cement was still wet when I returned ...

The other thing was finding out just how true (or not) the walls at that end of the kitchen are. With bottom of the cabinets snug against the wall I had a 1" gap at the top. And a chasm at the side that ranged from ½" at the bottom to over ¾" at the top. Hey, Ho. I did a deft bit of filling and it looks good now. I even filleted between the floor and the skirting behind the fridge to finish off.

Next thing will be to tile the walls and that side of the kitchen is finished. I can't do the other side until I get the window replaced. And I might as well have the two external doors replaced at the same time. Which only leaves three more windows to replace - perhaps I could get that done, too.

I think this is going to get expensive ...