Alt.Mustardland

No drive here: this is aPedestrian Estate... That will be my nesxy/last move: to have a house with a garage.

He sounds like someone full of fun. Maybe he only tried these ideas out in his head, mostly. You seem to have inherited your mother's caution. But a sense of adventure is good too.

I'm glad they have sorted out your gas leak at home GLO, wherever that may be. A moveable feast, in more ways than one. Your best bet is someone who knocks on doors and offers to put down half a tank of tarmac on your drive. You could then pay him half.

No, Dad qualified as an engineer, then became a teacher - teaching secondary school science to "intermediate" level and physics to senior level. He had unbounded curiosity and a desire to poke into the inner workings of just about everything, but with a slight tendency not to consider potential consequences fully. At his funeral, I recounted the story of his investigation into the then-new, fancy multi-journey rail tickets ... long, skinny pieces of card which you inserted into the ticket machine, which then took a "bite" out of one side, and printed a timestamp (thus, journey record went from the bottom of the ticket up). He poked and prodded, using meters, and found they had electrically conductive stripes on the back - so, having carefully measured the resistance, he then tried extending these stripes with comparably-resistive graphite. Yep, it worked; then, he wondered how far the machine would take bites out of the ticket. It was only later, over dinner, that he speculated about how he would have had a job explaining travelling on a 10-journey ticket with 13 or 14 journey time-stamps on it to a ticket inspector, should one have appeared!

Looks like the gas mender/pneumatic driller, had used the No Smoking Board to stop people falling down the hole he had dug. At some time the official sniffer was satisfied and had the hole backfilled and levelled with fca.
I'm not too disatisfied as the clumsy repair, because I am trying to get the council re-pave the courtyard because tree roots have risen flagstones to a series of rocking see-saws... When I was unwell last year my "Carer" told the estate managers that it was a fall danger outside a vulnerable (Me) elder. I doubt if the repair contractor (Which is the County workforce) now that local council changed the addresses...

I'm glad you had the inner wisdom to call the Gas Board. You were probably already wised up to basic self preservation. I take it that your dad wasn't an employee of said august body.

Being Tuesday, Cassie has been on another jaunt. I heard the back door close after she'd come back in from first airing, and I had gone back to bed. I dreamed she'd gone missing, and woke to find her bed empty. Little devil had nipped out before the door had closed.

Rwth of Cornovii wrote:Let's hope your neighbours take it seriously.

That reminds me of an "incident" at our home in Dublin, many years ago (before I was married). Shortly after we'd moved, my dad was investigating pipes and things leading into the house under the front doorstep, and found a somewhat rusted, elderly looking cast-iron pipe that appeared to dead-end under the floor in the hallway. It was quite separate to the gas and water. Thinking it might be useful as a conduit to lead wires under the doorstep, he drilled into it ... and was greeted with a loud hissing, and a strong smell of gas! I was just arriving home, and my mum and myself decided over Dad's objections that he could "fix this himself" (he'd "plugged" it by leaving the drill-bit in the hole, bandaged up with insulating tape), that we really should call the gas board ... so I did.

20 minutes later an engineer from the gas board arrived ... he said most reported "leaks" were actually dead rodents, or other things. He said by now he could tell the difference between a dead mouse and a dead rat ... sniff sniff .... THAT'S GAS! Dad had found (and drilled into) a part of the old Victorian gas network, that the gas board didn't have ANY maps or details of - and that clearly was still connected into the (recently replaced and upgraded) natural gas network! Declared as a "class A uncontrolled gas leak", work crew arrives within minutes, and after a night's work the ancient connection had been located and disconnected.

The most annoying part of this was, I was a smoker at the time ... and had to go right down to the end of the street to light up

Let's hope your neighbours take it seriously.

DON'T SMOKE... Gas people been pneumatic drilling early this a.m., and have now placed Np Smoking Signs to the Footpath under my house....

Don't worry about it. It's nice to hear from you anyway.

I was expecting my cleaner today, but apparently, I had made the appointment for next week. It will give me more time to rearrange things.

Sorry I'm innatentive - I seem to have more work to keep Secure and solvent than when I was working.

I'm not surprised. I just hope they can't possibly drink it all so will have to sell some of it and improve the quality sold away.

I discovered something about Californian wine a while back ... it's a bit like Indians and tea. They keep the very best for themselves, what they "allow" out of the state (never mind out of the country!) is rarely the best

Well done. You are making progress with this house numbering fracas. You might be able to get Attendance allowance which can be used for anything you can't do for yourself now. I use mine for gardening and handyman running repairs and I think it covers the cost of my fortnightly cleaners too. But I pay for that anyway, as I used to have a (different) useless gardener instead of the useful one. Once I'm fit to do it myself, I'll tell them to stop paying it and give back my blue badge. But it'll probably be well into the spring before I get my op, then recovery time, well into summer. Make hay while the sun shines.

I'm interested in what happens with the California fires generally. The singing firemen, the rescued pets, including hens and rabbits. Hoping that the winemaking people of the world will help put the vineyards back together with cuttings since California rescued the French and Spanish when they had the Phylloxera virus. Maybe the new California wines will be even better than before.

My mind (whats left of it) is bumping all over the place. Rwth, You Mentioned the Cats in the California Fire.. Have you been following the Rescues in "Tiny Kitten" and FDJ Critter Room in Canada. Shelley has been rescuing cats that have gone Feral, and making them save and neutering, or Making the Semi-ferals sociable, health repared well (and de-flead) and rehomed. FDJ is involved in nursing the Pregnant a newly mothered Cats.

Oh dear, I'm not doing very well at catching up today...

Another thing about German Shepherds is that they know their place.. So will look after your cat as well as any Human Family.

Can't remember what I've Mentioned.. But I High Court (Thats a bit vague, dont know what "High Court") has already ordered that my Local Gov gould not change House address (I knew that, The idea was that in the 1920's Fire engines had Engines and a recent war had trained many (surviving) men could drive, thus the fire service would only rapidly get to a housefire IF people couldnt willynilly move addresses. Hence houses recorded for as long as that site remains. 1925 Health act.). This also accounts why Doc used a different address on my prescriptions, but I have aso had missives from Patients Services (It is now called P.A.L.S. now), that The Hospital has my rightful address. - so far by phone : I want to read the small print, but it has put a spring in my walk ... well in my stagger.
Not yet written to MP to get him to chase up the councils corrections, but I was trying to get some petty amounts from Credit Union (sort of Local savings group) to get some Sub to trigger some Domestic repairs. but... it seems that with only the false address (given by council for Polloing address) records that at my proper address, I'm not an elector??? so a bit of a problem re Domestic Pocket.

Actually.. That is a Precis of problems that accured during my illness... CAB next I think.

After several weeks sleeping in a broken bed, the handyman has repaired it for me. He has also put brushes in the gutter and repaired my dining chairs. I am really delighted. One of the chairs was in the shed and the padlock had rusted. I found the WD40 and he freed it and repaired the chair in the shed. Having both a gardener and a handyman is a real treat.

My neighbour who looked after Cassie on meeting days was passionate about German Shepherds. She still talks about having one in her residential home, and while it's never going to be possible, I imagine how she'd love it. Even now, Cassie has her 'crackerdog' moments, which I'm sure keeps all our pets active and happy into old age. She's 12 now.

Had lots of "Stuff" to get doing, and just realized how late it is (it explains the headache).
Yes I'm surprised about older Cats behaving like kittens.. and not just cats.. The family round the corner have the Biggest German Shepherd I've ever seen, and certainly not young. He was chasing leaves in the breeze just like a kitten, I fell over him. If ever I wanted, had space, and could manage the food bill.. then I'd have one of them.

Gotta go ........

Yes indeed, Chandra is most definitely still with us! He's almost all grown-up now (well, he's physically grown up - but I think he still thinks he's a kitten). I'll provide some current photos sometime soon.

Have you still got Chandra? I remember the excitement when he was on his way, still with his mother. After the grief of his predecessor's sad accident. I'm glad that Perry found her way home in time for dinner.

I have been seeing the pictures of cats that were missing after the California Fires on Facebook. Some have been miraculously found and reunited with their servants. It's amazing what they've survived and all seem to look a little wild eyed. Will they blame their servants for their own escape from the infernos I wonder?

We have two nearby reservoirs. One, Clatworthy is not accessible to man nor beast, but the one I go to with Cassie is Wimbleball which I think supplies Clatworthy, no doubt via filters. There were, and are 3 in Birmingham. Bartley Green, which OH used to sail on with his Mirror dinghy, Muttley and the slightly larger Miracle dinghy Dastardly. People used to say it was misspelt, so I'd answer "Yes, he was going to call it Dastarbly". The third was Brindley's reservoir in Edgbaston that supplied the Central Canal system. That had Swans, Canada Geese, Great crested Grebes, Shovellers, Mallards, Coots and Moorhens and lots of Gulls. There were other places for birds too in Sandwell Valley and the Heron nursery with as many as 30 nests was quite a sight. Too far for me to walk now.

I took Blunders there once , to the closer Swan Pool, and the Fire brigade had been summoned to rescue a dog that was swimming and maybe attacking the swans, but the male was defending his family. There were 3 fire engines and a couple of firemen on a little inflatable raft. In the end, the owner peeled off his outers, dived in himself and brought his dog to safety.

Not Hignoring... Just got phone calls for Hosp appoints and causing more questions thans than answers.

Yes, I was Thinking that you had An older Bengal, But I remember ISA

Gotta go 6.7 Kilo of Big Ginger is shouting for service... again...