Alt.Mustardland

My cleaners came at 9am and my foot lady (foot health practitioner) came half an hour early then they had to realign the parking priorities so the cleaners could make a clean getaway.

The cakes for the vaccination team will go tomorrow so I'll have to bake this afternoon when the heating engineers have been. The neighbour organising the delivery rang to tell me that the phone no for the village restaurant had gone in wrongly so the calls were going to a wrong no in the midlands. I've sent a correction to the online customers to use the number in the advert, so with any luck he won't lose any custom. The gent with the wrong no sportingly promised to redirect all calls.

Just replied to your February post - now to catch-up re March
I hope your heat electrickery man has been and gone, and all is well. Also, your neighbourly delivery person is sorted... and the cleaners, and the Hurty-foot practitioner, and the Restaurant proprieter with the dud phone... What an exciting life you lead???

No March Hares here, but a few Foxes.

I really must get this damn pooter of mine sorted out. I have two storage wotsits (my brain is now failing,, and I can't remember the words) in my computer but it is overloaded and not storing everything - if shops were oped I could get a "Plug-in" whatever-it's-called.. actually I think I've got enough "bits" to build up something, but I'm anxious to lose nothing... Life was much easier in my Working days....

Think I'll stop now and give my brain a sleep....

Goodnight.

Do you have Cloud storage? You could shift some of your data, especially photographs, up there and make more room on your computer. You may also have a lot of duplicate files sitting there. I have one cloud with BT which I hardly use, one with Live.com. You could set a refrag going just before you go out so you don't have to sit and wait. You could also delete most of the cookies dumped on your browser every time you try to read a newspaper online.

My trip switch had tripped when I had a power cut while my heat pump was working. So they sorted it out then continued on their merry way and I'm warm again. Hot water and everything.

I had a message on the facebook page I started for the residents' association. One of the daughters asked after her mum so on the way back from delivering cake for the vaccinators I went to track her down. I found a whole new close I hadn't seen before and identified her house. She very sensibly wasn't answering the door at that time of night (9.30 pm) so I looked to see which lights were on, and reported back. I'm glad I did though. Daughter was reassured.

I'm having a lazy day today and it's time for pikelets and coffee.

Hi again ... I would have replied, now that the underground wires are working again.... Unfortunately The Love of the Water Company digging up the courtyard - after dark - with pneumatic drill - has set me back a bit... ... I'll ask Matron for more pills.

I'm just looking for funny jokes for the parish magazine. They have good ones in Merseyside magazines, but I can't find the website they are posted on.

My cleaners came and went, I persuaded Cassie to take an antibiotic for a nasty ulcer that she is reluctant to leave alone. My gardener came and did some visibly useful work pruning and weeding.

Only a couple of chores, then I can go to bed. Sorry. forgot to post this.

Middle of the night...
Can't sleep...
But I can't think - not until I get some more sleeps.

Seems to be warmer in the night than in the day... Weird innit?

There's a Hell of a draught here... last night's bin-bags seems to have gone walkabout.. Unfortunately seem not to have closed my door properly when I took a look, because the Gale blew my door and internal doors being blown open. VERY draughty..

What's it like in your part of the woods...

I shant be going out today... I have seen the photo's of road closures due to Gales and/or collisions caused by the gales, so I doubt if any bis timetable will work

Standing in the doorway to the garden at 4am, I can assure you it is still colder at night. No difficulty in sleeping, except I'm on call for the duration now.

There is a weird mystery in that my touch lamp only works when I go to bed. Once I've turned it off, that's it until bedtime the next night. Maybe I'm too heavy handed at other times. I changed the bulb, but no change.

The sun is shining but there will be more rain. The force 9 gusts have abated to force 6. The lid to the wormery has blown off, and the bird feeder stand blew over. It was empty, apart from the sunflower hearts that got wet and aren't falling to the food tray.

Hi...
Well, It is definately warm tonight.

Been doing a bit of "Computer update" - Might have to get some done by "on line" repairman. For obvious reasons He cannot do "Hands on" work - (and quite an expensive Taxi fare?). It updates itself from time to time, but omits some stuff if it is "too full"- which it has been several times over the years, and I need some of it now..

Does your "touch lamp" also has a time switch either in the lamp, or in the plug, that you don't know of. I have got one night switch that on/off varies in the times of darkness ... Don't laugh, but it is a VERY low lightness level. If one's BIG Ginger cat (who rules this house) has a coat that matches the carpet, there could be a nasty accident; I have put the lamp under a sideboard, in front of which He frequently adopts a Relaxation posture (aka Dozing) in a room with underfloor heating. Cats can teach us a lot about Relaxation.....

I think the lamp was trying to tell me something. Antibiotics that taste horrible are no good for a dog on her last legs. I took her to the vet on Friday afternoon and we sent her to sleep. I did the weekly shop and came home on my own.

Ever since, the lamp has worked perfectly.

Are you using Windows 10? Not that it matters. Whichever works for you but it's useful to have a cloud or a collection of flash drives for your important data. I have one with 16GB capacity. I'm a bit annoyed with the processes that give access to Photographs. They'll let me look at them one at a time, but cropping and improving contrast, forget it! Windows 7 was brilliant for that.

Oh Hell? I'm sorry to read the loss of your Beloved Dog. I know how bad it is to lose a pet.

On a lesser matter: No. I use Windows 7. Yes, I know it is obsolete, but I have so much "stuff" that I don't want to lose, so I want to recover whatever I can before I replace it. - I may need to buy external Hard drives. However, there seems to be some sort of "attack". This only became apparent when a Security device was .... err, attacked/deleted (McAfee). I tried a different brand ... which immediately tried to snaffle monies from a long-ago payment (Was it called "PayPal?" - whatever it is, one cannot erase it). Fortunately, A very Nice Lady with an Irish accent from my bank (thinks: why should an English bank do their Security from The Irish Republic?), phoned for me to "approve" it or she would disable the transaction; She also changed my card number For which I had to present myself in person to my branch. Thus there is something to get eradicated from the computer. In these days of Shops and/or computer menders closed for business, I'm having difficulty as such simple things of getting Metric screws (Halford have only imperial screws) to fit extra disc drive into computer... I started but .... My truculent computer has now gone into "Update status" as I keep finding USB flash drives (found SIX? so far) before I can move-on. It has been Upgrading for six hours so far??????? You seem to have your photo's excluded - So are mine.

Change of Subject: I was on an omnibus - shopping to B&Q, and Wilco etc., I saw a lady playing music in the street. As you are a Violinist, you might find it odd/interesting that She has transferred to Fiddle playing to ..... a Harp?. Must be a damn heavy instrument to carry on a bus?

Once again, I'm sorry for the loss of Carrie.

Cassieopeia had been very poorly, and was losing control big time. When she stopped eating half her food, I knew the time had come. So she just went to sleep. I had been preparing myself for some time, but it's still a wrench. As the poem goes "Never give a dog your heart to tear".

I think Windows 7 was the best. If you google "Windows 7 updates" there may be a routine you can use to stop constant updates. Windows 8 used to get stuck like that but I think Microsoft is in the process of withdrawing support for Windows 7. Maybe your local computer shop could put a new hard drive with more capacity on it. A new computer would be a better bet because they have much bigger hard drives. I will do the photo processing later, but have lots of other tasks to do first.

I wouldn't use Paypal. It was subject to dodgy attacks in the past, and while I had an account with them It only ever had a pound or two in it and my main bank changed my sort code a few years ago so they can't draw on my current account any more. I hope you didn't let the woman who phoned you with the nice accent get control of your account. Make sure always that you rang them, always on a different phone from the one they phoned you. Put your own bank's phone no on your own phone then ask for fraud dept once you are connected. I have a cunning plan. There is a barely viable account with another bank that I would theoretically transfer all my dealings to, but in fact, having decided to switch accounts to an ethical bank, I'm working through the various procedures to get it done before the beginning of April.

Your street harpist story amazed me. She'd be struggling if it came on to rain. I couldn't lift a harp, let alone carry it on a bus. Are you sure it was the same person? Maybe she's an angel, or just on her way to a party?

I just replied to this and (I thought) I'd posted it.
I'll find my marbles and try again after a good nights sleep

Me again .. I did write, then it failed to post, then I got waylaid trying to resuscitate my ancient computer, and then I couldn't remember what I had lost.

Condolences again. I remember when Mum's Alsatian died. The Vet arrived too late. The Breeder got to hear and came around to get all the details, then looked into all his ancestors. The only "suspect" (several generations back) was found to have had no other ailments in his/her successors - My Mum refused a "replacement from the (then) new crop of Pups. We did visit the Farm ... All her dogs came out to "warn Her" that strangers were about, but they became quite friendly after the Breeder met us. One dog (well, a bitch called Heidi) was especially friendly (but only after she had splashed around in the Horse Trough to make us wet?) - but she got a bit cautious when I neared a particular Barn - Her Pups were pushing their noses through the vents - The Breeder's policy was to give the New Mother Dogs a few hours away from the Pups when she (The bitch) had seen the pups safely enclosed, and the Farmworkers had gone.

What else did I mention in my original post? Yes, Window 7. I still use it, but it no longer gives updates (but Mozilla FIREFOX, which I use, still does). I'm trying to recover some "lost" data before/if I should find that Window 10 to be beneficial. I hadn't realized that I had a number of Plug-in USB** when the Hard drive got itself overloaded. I also have an Extra unused Hard drive and an External box (I think I may have got this to extend a previous computer, but never used it so bought the current one - from a disabled persons/child Hobby group that rebuilt computers - The Guarantee carried the County emblems). I also have the two x Hard discs that the bloke I gave it away to insisted that I should keep the Hard drives for security, that He then sat here and removed them. I am trying to merge this lot together. It looks like I need to buy a disc burner (I have just installed a new second disc drive) to collect this sundry collection before I dabble with copying all that is lost into .... something or other.
What I have discovered that when new, this computer was a) expensive, and that b) my particular model was at the "lower end of the range" and simply has stray internal plugs and brackets that were unused But does have two Hard drives).
** USB of 16 or 32 GB - I bought a couple of new ones of 256 GB Recently,
No, I generally don't use PayPal. I did use it once, but saw no benefit from it, but it is exceedingly difficult to disconnect it. The Bank Lady (an English Bank with a Dublin Security office????) had stopped the transfer, and Offered (and I accepted) a new card number, if I went to my Local branch. Incidentally, The Local Branch could make my monies available through my second account at another Bank. (Two accounts? Yes, a relic from my working days when Card machines had "failures" and I had a second account to pay for digs/petrol/food when working away if one bank card was not working - especially when the Job could not have one's own money in one's pocket: e.g., near cash registers, wages offices, banks??? One would get very cold and Hungry)

The Harp: Well, I was on a bus passing the end of the pedestrianized "High Street" (if the bus still used that road, the double-deckers would have made a hell of a mess under the Low Railway Bridge), so from that distance It could have been a different woman in the same site, but I don't think so: I wonder if someone could have taken a van to/from there before/after shopping hours.

Oh dear,I have tried to put too much into this post - Let's see if I can post it properly this time?

M......

Mostly I see. Thank you for your kind thoughts. It seems that four dogs in the parish have died within a short time of each other, all old and very much ailing. I had a very nice card from the vet sympathising, and while I normally don't like company Christmas cards etc this one was very tasteful and kind so it made quite a difference. You so nearly had another Alsatian, but I expect it was a nice day out anyway.

Firefox is a browser, and I used it a lot, but I wasn't able to register properly with their site. It doesn't matter how many times I try to rergister, they never recognise my password. I tried Microsoft Edge but they get very grumpy if I try to use Google as a search engine instead of Bing with lots of adverts, so I moved swiftly on to Google Chrome, which suits me better.

I had done all the proofs for the magazine, but could only deliver one within walking distance because my battery died soI couldn't deliver the other two. Just as I had done the amendments from one proofreader, the RAC arrived and after checking thoroughly my battery, alternator, voltage regulator and starter motor, he replaced my battery with a cheerful smile saying that the old one, new a few years ago was still just in guarantee, so I wouldn't have to pay anything. He only looked about 18, but he had done 4 years qualification and a couple of years at a garage. I felt guilty but I was curious about the kind of qualifications the RAC look for. He didn't look offended. I expect he gets it a lot.

I was a bit miffed because the orchestra were playing this morning at church and nobody had invited me to play. They said when I rang last night that the numbers were limited because of Covid, but when it came to it I didn't feel like going, sitting there and applauding with my nose out of joint. There may be a good reason, but I'm really disappointed. I have a new viola, but apart from practising, it hasn't had an outing. I'll get over it.

Yup, I feel as though My Battery is also flat.?????

Chrome is on here, but very little used. I also have "Explorer"; I have No idea why, but I just lurked to see what is there. ... Requests to "update" (which is fair enough, as I never used it), and lots of "news" in the form of Megan and "The Palace" which I'm not inclined to investigate. In trying these sundry Old USB plug-ins, I have also found an old Letter-writing format called "Lotus" now defunct but was much more useful than Whatever I'm connected to now?

Good to see that you have your Car Battery sorted. My ancient car(s) seem to have enormous batteries by modern standard, but I have doubts if they are still serviceable (I have not driven since my "stroke", but I am thinking of taking a test drive with a nearby instructor). Why do ancient tasks keep coming back to me.... In the dark days (1980's) there was little work around (lack of work happened within a year of my shiny new Mortgage?) so I did some extra work for a Taxi-firm. The same outfit was based at a Garage/car dealer. So I was asked to drive a Ford (Cortina, perhaps?) to take a New car to exchange with a dealer in Brighton - for one of the same colour, Two-door (instead of four doors), The Cheapest standard of Upholstery BUT, the Biggest Alternator and Batteries (normally Export models), and Automatic transmission??? It was ordered by a Disabled (very) buyer who needed it to a) for the Wider doors of a two-door version to get from wheelchair to driving seat, b) Have a more comfortable seat for his disabilities, c) The driving controls changed (Hand-operated accelerator), d)The seat moved to allow parking for his folded wheelchair between the driver's seat and the door, and a crane mounted on the roof to lift him in and out: The coachbuilder that I delivered it to, wanted extra batteries in the boot to drive it all (and some extinguishers in the extra cabling? A ministry requirement)... Why am I still thinking about this ancient History?

Sorry that you missed using your new Viola. Hope you can get usage of it soon.

I have a pain in my Left Leg - a pain caused by cat claws - I'd better feed him... Then do my Census docket?

A friend of mine was struggling in putting in all her qualifications. She could only show her first degree but not her Masters. She had one in Maths and one in Theology. I did my Census return on Saturday night, just before midnight. There seemed to be a lot of questions about "absent friends", and not enough about place of birth. I had no doubts about my gender, but was glad that people could be specific. If you want to keep a copy of your record if you do it online, you have to do it before you submit your entry, (screenshot is best) because nobody will be able to see it for 100 years. the 1921 one should be going public soon. The 1911 one was quite enlightening.

I'll have to do more practice, but I'm thinking of pirating some cello pieces. Saint Saens' piece for The Swan is nice, even if I'm not that good. The Viola is strung an exact octave above the cello. I've been looking at online lessons and now have a long list of techniques to master.

That adaptation for a disabled driver must have been interesting to drive. My 2 door Skoda had lovely big doors, but tricky in car parks. In a space for Blue badge drivers it would have been fine. Bill actually bought his Skoda Favorit because he saw he could easily find space for his mother's wheelchair. He had been intended to buy it for me but got it for himself because of the extra space, and a better one came along for me in a lovely shade of blue.

Not done my census form yet - been unwell all day, and from the lastn few days: Not even opened recent mail that might be sitting on my doormat.The only thing I noted today was that it would have been My Mum's today (in 1913). It also brings to mind that one year in seven, it coincided Mothering Sunday.

You are the sort of Person Who might know this: Is there a published record/map of My Grandad's Grave (My mothers father, My Dad's father died in some sort of altercation in Belgium in 1915).

The car I drove back from the exchanged Ford was still intact. I had to take it to a Interior Coach firm in Ilford, for them to plan where to fit the extra Electrics, taking Photo's Notes, and sketches, then on to the Battery makers in Westcliffe, and then to the MoT conversion outfit. They were known as Invicar, and formerly one of two or three makers of those little three-wheeler one-person Invalid car. At that time they also had to do the Maintenance and slightly different MOT docket as registered for the modified design, throughout the car's life.

Regarding your granddad's death, if his body was recovered, it may be found at Thiepval, either in a marked grave or his name engraved on a cenotaph for those killed but not recovered. The attendants seem to know exactly where to find everyone named. If you have his name and date of birth as well as the regiment he served in, I could try and look him up on Find my Past. Neither of my grandfathers served in the 'altercation'. One was 5'6" and had a weak chest, and the other copped a Blighty one in the Mafeking relief force. He was busy raising warhorses and growing food 1914-18. His cousin fought for the duration. NCOs had a better chance than officers. His brother in law, Harry Jones was in the regular army as a PT instructor. At the Medicine and War Exhibition at the Courtauld Institute in about 2009 I saw that they didn't reduce the height and weight requirement to 5'7" until 1917.

I read a very good Robert Goddard novel "In Pale Battalions" a few weeks ago, but I think the best was still "All Quiet on the Western Front"

Afraid I know very Little of my Father's Dad (He was Killed before My dad was born). I know He was Born in Ireland, and Had lived in London (Holborn/parish of St Pancras) and .... No it is all a bit vague.
I did try a bit of exploring, but The Military need all the things that I need answers for, before they will tell anything - although it was after WW 1 (or The Great War as they called it before there was a WW2) before they tightened up access to details. I Suspect that He was in the London Irish Regiment...

As a kid (three or four years old) I did meet Mum's Dad, who lived in his House near here, in his later days (His two eldest Sons Bought Him a House in the Country, out of the London Smog that had devilled his Lungs - from the coal-gas works, and Buried at "The Church on the Hill" in 1950. I was wondering if his Grave is still findable.
as an "aside" .. it seems that when this "new Town" was designed, some of the Old Mansion Houses in this area Accidentally(?) caught fire and were Destroyed. One such House was the perimeter of the Church Graveyard. I have been to a few meetings of the Local History group, but it came to an end since Corvid. I have been directed to The tape-recording Ladies at Wat Tyler on the Day for the Laindon group, but again: closed since Corvid (Wat Tyler is a Park at the other end of Laindon end of this town).
and as a Further "aside" .... Laindon (before the A127 road took its current prominence) was half way betwixt Langdon (i.e LongDune - but name-changed to Langdon Hills when it became a PoW camp) and Wickford, and in those days (from WW 2) Retirement meant that one just got enough to invest in some sort of income. Thus He kept Rabbits (During Meat Rationing) in his garden shed, to sell in Wickford Market, So I made an entry to their Historic Group to see if any interest could be sparked .... Again Covid got in the way.