O - perhaps it was a case of the lightning striking the wrong cathedral?
(Soon after the then Bishop of Durham was accused of insulting/denying The Resurrection of Our Blessed Lord, a lightning strike set fire to York Minster. York, not Durham. Bad aim on someone's part).
Companies who have discussions on the phone about installation of freezers and the price thereof, send a cryptic email about amending the paid for order without explaining what has been amended, so the men turn up and say they can't come in.
We compromised. They came in to remove the existing freezer (but complained it was full of ice, which may explain the problems - despite its being a no frost one). They came in to deliver the new one, but did not remove its wrappings or plug it in.
I have had the cost of removing it removed from the bill as a goodwill gesture.
I have managed to remove the wrappings and get the thing working, and have a massive pile of polystyrene to get rid of. I also managed to dent it on the washing machine.
I have only just managed to squeeze everything from the old freezer into the new one, which is taller and has more drawers. But has thicker insulation. It is very good that I did not order the shorter model. This one fits the space exactly, with 2 mm clearance - so their measurements were accurate.
Nothing from the plumber yet.
O - perhaps it was a case of the lightning striking the wrong cathedral?
(Soon after the then Bishop of Durham was accused of insulting/denying The Resurrection of Our Blessed Lord, a lightning strike set fire to York Minster. York, not Durham. Bad aim on someone's part).
Yes, but he'd been consecrated at York. Bad timing, rather than bad aim.
We had a mountain of bagged garden waste, waiting for the recycling centres to reopen. We they did, and we were loading up the car, the bags were covered in slugs and snails. Which the North East Quinie carefully picked off and lovingly rehomed around the garden.....
@Penny S I use chunks of polystyrene in big pots for thing like runner beans and sweet peas - helps with drainage and you don't need to use half a ton of compost for no good reason.
Mice. I was sitting right here a few days ago and heard a noise nearby. A large brown mouse appeared from a cupboard and then disappeared. We'd returned the well-used borrowed trap, so right away ordered a pair of humane traps that arrived yesterday, noting that it said on the box 'smart mouse trap'. So far, our mice have outsmarted it, and the cat has intimated that this is not his area of responsibility. I will be patient.
2 mm. This is only over a narrow part of the freezer, about 6 inches*, the rest has clearance up to ceiling level. There is an unexpected problem, in that I can't put things on top of the freezer which used to live on the old one, as I won't be able to open the unit door.
And it is far too much polystyrene for garden use, and the garden isn't in a state for that sort of thing yet.
*Note mix of measures. SI for precision, Imperial for I can't be bothered to measure, don't need to, and here's a rough estimate.
... the cat has intimated that this is not his area of responsibility ...
Oh yes it is. He needs to get his priorities sorted out!
I always assumed that the reason we were plagued with mice in St. John's was because there were several cats in the vicinity, but as our house was a cat-free zone, the mice felt it was their prerogative ...
Word of advice, don't Google "glory hole" - the meaning has changed somewhat and there is a much better known urban dictionary version that has taken over the original meaning. (I'm being nice to piglet here and not linking to it)
FWIW, that “don’t google” meaning is the only meaning I’ve ever known, and I first heard it at least 40 years ago.
What IS the original meaning of "glory hole"? I only know the NSFW version.
I don't have a walk-in pantry, but I did figure out a good solution to an acute lack of storage space in my kitchen. (I'm only the second owner of this relatively new house, but bad design is timeless.)
Said kitchen has a center island; the refrigerator was on the far side of it from where food preparation takes place. So when I redid the kitchen, I had said appliance moved to a more convenient spot. I added more cabinets, including one over the fridge (as if I could reach it) and another short one, taking the cabinets to the outside wall.
That left me with a very deep pantry space. I found some pull-out shelf units online - German-made, and stereotypically efficient - with tall ones for the main pantry and short ones (for pots and pans) to go under them. I also had a shelf added to a deep rectangular space above the wall ovens (apparently designed for a TV) and cabinet doors put in front of it. The pathetically narrow pantry I found when I bought the place is now reserved for brooms, cleaning materials, and the like. Voila! Space!
In French, I believe the term is 'debarras' - we stayed in a gite once which was advertised as having one such, and when we turned up, it was an absolute treasure trove of Stuff - Mr S's father adored rummaging around among the broken prams, farm implements from the Middle Ages and so on.
Now we have no garage, only an outdoor store room/workshop, and she is known as Debbie (it's shorter than almost any other way of referring to her!)
We also have a Russia House - the Up Stairs Sitting Room - but still struggle with a pet name for the hall/breakfast room/conservatory!
I seem to remember a shipmate who some years ago used the line, "Don't anthropomorphise inanimate objects - they don't like it". I thought it was very wise.
There is a church in Edinburgh which many of my friends attend.
Just before you go into the sanctuary /auditorium /body of the kirk there is a small recessed area (like a broom cupboard/ janitors closet).
I think it used have shelves for hymnbooks and someone would stand there to hand them out and welcome people, now it has the monitors for their CCTV
They all refer to it as the "glory hole"
But could be used in place of a rawlplug?
I impressed one workman by having the contents of my drawer in a multipocketed plastic thing hung on the back of the utility room door. I can see everything! Lakeland have stopped selling them.
Ruamoko - the Maori God responsible for earthquakes. Today's one was small (3.2) but close by, noisy and shallow - noisy always makes it seem worse and close by and shallow always feels worse.
TICTH the irritation felt when it’s obvious that those posting on social media pages are not of the group they are supposed to be representing. They are posting what they think ‘they’ should want rather than truly representing us.
This is why you shouldn't have heroes. TICTH the arsehole who has been one of my favourite authors for years and a deep influence on my world view and approach to online communities turns out to have been a serial sexual harasser. Bastard I am heartbroken and livid.
Got one of those, too, for the same and with the same caveat. The utility room one is at least twice as long, sort of three quarters the length of the door. It's got fuses, garden twine, allen keys, cup hooks, small screwdrivers, secateurs (some pockets are bigger), garden labels, S hooks, wire strippers, fuse wire, wire closures for plastic bags, sticky stuff removal sachets, rooting powder, WD40 in a tube with a pen type applicator, steel tape measure, washers, wood scratch cover pens and a lot of other stuff which, being two floors up I can't instantly recall, but, when there's a job to be done, I go and stare at it for a while, and find something which will do the job. Or else I find that I already took the tool I need and didn't return it. I'm definitely missing a set of three small screwdrivers from a cracker*, slot, cross head and an awl in a plastic case.
Missing mini screwdrivers are a right pain, especially when the really tiny ones for glasses get lost or are walked off with. Both Mr Dragon and I wear glasses, so I have one but can rarely find it when I need it!
@Pendragon I think your mini screwdriver and mine have gone and hidden in the same place. When it's also my clarinet's set of screwdrivers, it's a massive pain.
I am thinking of taking the mini-screwdrivers in my house (when I find them, of course) and hanging them on a nail in the kitchen like I did with the scissors. I always put the scissors back and figure I would do the same with the screwdrivers.
Penny, that sounds like the most useful of contraptions - especially if all the contents are where you think they are! We had a tool-box, which served a similar purpose, but as you can imagine, things that were taken out, even for perfectly legitimate purposes, were rarely put back.
If I ever get my own place, I may well invest in one, and find a suitable door from which to suspend it.
Your New Place may well (one hopes) already have at least one door...
I keep a handy selection of small tools in an old butler's knife tray (the tray is old - I suspect the butler is buttling in Heaven...).
Larger tools live in the wheelhouse of the Ark, and, utilising lockdown, I recently overhauled the collection, cleaning some, and disposing of others...
I have a Stanley cantilever toolbox which used to live in the garage, but is currently in my study. I bought it for school because the head decided I couldn't have the desk with the locking drawer, so I needed something I could lock for the craft knives. I have a tool bag which lives on the landing of the second floor for stuff I need for a job. The small screwdrivers may be in there. Biggish things should be in one or other of those. The hand drill and the yankee screwdriver and the bits for them live in a very nice wooden box I found in Oxfam. It had a curious label on the underside of the lid, and investigation proved it had once held a device for inserting into torpedoes for testing them. I consider this to be a spears into pruning hooks job.
My sister has a lovely big wooden chest that belonged to my grandad and the tools that went in it, and uses them.
I can't remember when I last saw the spectacles drivers, but I have a set of precision drivers in the door hanging, which will do the job if required.
Free advice, and also worthy of consignment to a hotter place. Don't ever buy a black plastic toolbox. Small tools will vanish in the bottom for years at a time. Like cars, red ones perform much better.
I have a collection of used Christingle candles in our kitchen drawer, together with a box of matches. If we ever have a blackout, I know they can easily be found. There’s also a torch in there.
Whilst giving the interior a wipe round, I noticed what I thought was a piece of packaging I'd forgotten to remove.
I removed it, whereupon it broke in two pieces (it's made of a sort of cardboard).
I became suspicious - had I done Something Stupid?
Yes. I had.
On enquiring of my friend Mr Go Ogle, I find that it was, in fact, a Most Necessary Item, preventing short-circuits. I have, therefore, had to order replacements from my other friend, Mr E Bay.
Government legislation that mandates that I have to make decisions about the autumn and next summer this week, when everything is in flux, and some of the answers I need to make plans bare not straightforward to find. (The thought that there are about 15 weeks to October is also a bit scary.)
Comments
(Soon after the then Bishop of Durham was accused of insulting/denying The Resurrection of Our Blessed Lord, a lightning strike set fire to York Minster. York, not Durham. Bad aim on someone's part).
We compromised. They came in to remove the existing freezer (but complained it was full of ice, which may explain the problems - despite its being a no frost one). They came in to deliver the new one, but did not remove its wrappings or plug it in.
I have had the cost of removing it removed from the bill as a goodwill gesture.
I have managed to remove the wrappings and get the thing working, and have a massive pile of polystyrene to get rid of. I also managed to dent it on the washing machine.
I have only just managed to squeeze everything from the old freezer into the new one, which is taller and has more drawers. But has thicker insulation. It is very good that I did not order the shorter model. This one fits the space exactly, with 2 mm clearance - so their measurements were accurate.
Nothing from the plumber yet.
And snails
Yes, but he'd been consecrated at York. Bad timing, rather than bad aim.
... and puppy-dogs' tails?
I'll fetch my own coat.
We had a mountain of bagged garden waste, waiting for the recycling centres to reopen. We they did, and we were loading up the car, the bags were covered in slugs and snails. Which the North East Quinie carefully picked off and lovingly rehomed around the garden.....
And it is far too much polystyrene for garden use, and the garden isn't in a state for that sort of thing yet.
*Note mix of measures. SI for precision, Imperial for I can't be bothered to measure, don't need to, and here's a rough estimate.
I always assumed that the reason we were plagued with mice in St. John's was because there were several cats in the vicinity, but as our house was a cat-free zone, the mice felt it was their prerogative ...
I don't have a walk-in pantry, but I did figure out a good solution to an acute lack of storage space in my kitchen. (I'm only the second owner of this relatively new house, but bad design is timeless.)
Said kitchen has a center island; the refrigerator was on the far side of it from where food preparation takes place. So when I redid the kitchen, I had said appliance moved to a more convenient spot. I added more cabinets, including one over the fridge (as if I could reach it) and another short one, taking the cabinets to the outside wall.
That left me with a very deep pantry space. I found some pull-out shelf units online - German-made, and stereotypically efficient - with tall ones for the main pantry and short ones (for pots and pans) to go under them. I also had a shelf added to a deep rectangular space above the wall ovens (apparently designed for a TV) and cabinet doors put in front of it. The pathetically narrow pantry I found when I bought the place is now reserved for brooms, cleaning materials, and the like. Voila! Space!
Now we have no garage, only an outdoor store room/workshop, and she is known as Debbie (it's shorter than almost any other way of referring to her!)
We also have a Russia House - the Up Stairs Sitting Room - but still struggle with a pet name for the hall/breakfast room/conservatory!
Just before you go into the sanctuary /auditorium /body of the kirk there is a small recessed area (like a broom cupboard/ janitors closet).
I think it used have shelves for hymnbooks and someone would stand there to hand them out and welcome people, now it has the monitors for their CCTV
They all refer to it as the "glory hole"
Said drawer being "junk drawer" or "jumble drawer" here, IME.
* If you asked my mum where something was, the most likely answer would be "in the second drawer down" (in the kitchen).
I once heard of such a drawer which contained a Paper Bag labelled 'Bits of String too Short to be of any Use'...
I impressed one workman by having the contents of my drawer in a multipocketed plastic thing hung on the back of the utility room door. I can see everything! Lakeland have stopped selling them.
Neat idea!
* Of the costume variety. What I have of the good stuff is locked up.
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_cracker I always buy ones with useful gifts inside.
If I ever get my own place, I may well invest in one, and find a suitable door from which to suspend it.
I keep a handy selection of small tools in an old butler's knife tray (the tray is old - I suspect the butler is buttling in Heaven...).
Larger tools live in the wheelhouse of the Ark, and, utilising lockdown, I recently overhauled the collection, cleaning some, and disposing of others...
My sister has a lovely big wooden chest that belonged to my grandad and the tools that went in it, and uses them.
I can't remember when I last saw the spectacles drivers, but I have a set of precision drivers in the door hanging, which will do the job if required.
Hehe...true - but would he still be buttling in Heaven? Or might perhaps an apprentice angel be deputed to buttling for him?
Whilst giving the interior a wipe round, I noticed what I thought was a piece of packaging I'd forgotten to remove.
I removed it, whereupon it broke in two pieces (it's made of a sort of cardboard).
I became suspicious - had I done Something Stupid?
Yes. I had.
On enquiring of my friend Mr Go Ogle, I find that it was, in fact, a Most Necessary Item, preventing short-circuits. I have, therefore, had to order replacements from my other friend, Mr E Bay.
(singed)
BF, Local Boob.