Month: October 2011

October 30, 2011
Work on the bathroom was completed on Thursday, and I have been taking showers twice a day since, and loving it.

While the bathroom was out of action, for a week and a bit, I’d been having wash-basin washes, and, once the bath was re-fitted, a bath. A few years ago, I would have thought nothing of it. When I was young, I was brought up on a bath a week, and “a good wash” every day in between. However, since my 30’s I’ve always preferred a shower, and a flannel wash no longer does it for me – I know I am clean, but I don’t feel clean.

October 20, 2011
A while ago, I posted that I had bodged together a pair of prescription passive 3D specs. They worked well, until I decided I could improve on the taping of the lenses, and managed to completely mess one of them up.

Meanwhile I discovered these on eBay. They are framed, and therefore not flimsey like other clipons, they are fairly flat and not curved, which means they fit well to most prescription frames (at least those I have tried). And they are only 4 quid, including postage.

October 17, 2011
I recently enjoyed the movie Limitless, on DVD, which led me to the Alan Glynn novel it was based on, “The Dark Fields”.

I usually find that by watching a movie first, when I get around to the novel it yields even more plot detail, and I can enjoy the story all over again. In this case, the film differed from the novel in a few important points, and I actually preferred the film to the novel.

October 15, 2011
When the guys were clearing my garden and my existing raised beds, they bagged up all the good soil for future use. I am very grateful for them doing this – it would not have occurred to me to ask, but it was a great thing to do – both in terms of saving money, and simply not wasting good soil.

I reckoned I had enough soil to fill two of the four troughs, together with a little added compost, and my plan was to fill those two troughs and plant them with winter veg, while leaving the other two troughs empty until spring.

October 14, 2011
For anyone who is interested, here are some more pictures of the garden, now that the main features are in place. The seating is a somewhat temporary ragbag, until I buy more furniture, but it is plenty good enough for now. The troughs are still yet to be filled and planted. I plan to do one or two of these this weekend, but leave the others until spring – there is only so much that can be usefully planted at this time of year.

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October 7, 2011
October 1, 2011
A couple of days ago, I mentioned that the shelving unit I had prevously bought to stand my (original 2D) TV on turned out to be too high for my new 3D TV. This is because the tv stand provided with it pivots from side to side, but has no tilt; and viewing the TV from below spoils the 3D effect, with significant crosstalk. However, viewing it from the “sweet spot” gave a perfect picture – unfortunately, my sofa isn’t that high!

I was contemplating wall-mounting it with a tilt bracket, but today I decided to move some furniture about. This was not a decision lightly made, as I had only just got all my audio-visual separates set up.

October 1, 2011
As of yesterday, the rear patio is laid. Still lots of stuff to do, including pointing etc., but I thought I would post a few pictures.

There will be a BBQ area with some seating behind the garage and a table with seating on the main patio. The gravelled area is going to have 3-4 large vegetable troughs, giving me approximately 6m2 of growing area.