Nick's Ramblings

Literally!

Anyway, she's a bit overweight so it's diet time – poor love.

After finally getting round to sorting out the garage, we've had a few odd things that needed to be got rid of. Normally these would have gone down to the tip, but as there was nothing actually wrong with them we tried a different approach. We had a fridge freezer, a freezer, a rabbit hutch and run, some old carpet and a slightly dodgy printer to get shot of. So I put them on Freecycle. This is where you say what you've got and if someone else wants it, they can have it!
So all the stuff is gone to people who can use it, it's not been unnecessarily dumped, our garage is clear and we can actually put a car in it and I haven't had to go to the tip.

Splendid concept!

I think Mummy & Daddy are away next door as their evil offspring that have been left behind are being even more obnoxious and anti social than usual.

The other night they were round the back and round the front with their mates shouting and arseing about until well after midnight, and then yesterday, they had some band practice for around six hours. Luckily they finished at about 7.3o pm, or I think they may have had some really upset neighbours.

 

Typical of that family though. They only think about themselves and no one else. 

It was a glorious day yesterday, so we decided to go to Llandudno for the day. All we did was have a wander in the town, sit on the beach and had a paddle – it was great!

What more can you ask for? 

Well, virtually all the staff here at work are. Everyone is saying 'Only one more week to go'. If I hear that again, I'm going to scream! :-@ Only five more to go from my perspective! Some of these people don't know how lucky they are.

I went to one of our local primary schools yesterday as they wanted a bit of IT advice. What they want, and to some degree need, to do is buy a whole load of equipment. However, they don't have the money. So how are they supposed to provide up to date IT for their pupils if they don't have the cash? They can't even afford to employ a technician on a part time basis to keep everything running.

Just to change the subject totally, I've managed to get a car in our garage this week! That's the first time in 3 years!! Had another clearing out session and we've bought a plastic mini shed thingy for some of the junk. I think the garage was built for an original Mini though. Even with minimal stuff in the garage, it's still snug!

Due to Carol being made redundant recently, I decided to try for a job with more money. There were two I applied for.

One, which I was interviewed for and got offered the job, I had to turn down as I would have lost money due to the extra travelling 🙁 .
The other didn't bother to answer my application until I started asking!

Shame really, as I would have liked the place that offered me the job. I've spoken to our head to see if I can get more money, but I've got to wait until September until he can speak to the Governors.

The first winter after we bought the house, I noticed the gate to the back yard got really swollen due to all the wet weather. I didn't do anything for a year, but last year I got round to treating it. No suprise that there was bare, untreated wood down the sides. So last winter, it was quite noticable that the gate hardly swelled and opened and closed properly and easily.

Trouble is that in the last couple of weeks I noticed that huge lumps were rotten! A new plank of wood and a couple of hinges were bought yesterday, the gate taken off the hinges and rotten wood removed. It was not a shock to see the wood behind the rotten stuff was not treated!

So, rotten wood removed, untreated wood treated, new wood treated, new bits attached and gate rehung! All I've got to do now is repaint the new bits again just to make sure.

Yesterday was the 90th anniversery of the first Day of the Battle of The Somme. Nearly 20000 British soldiers died that day.

 

Yesterday England lost a football match and left the world cup.

 

Which event was considered the most important?

Had the builders in the yard again this morning. At least they knocked on the door to say they were finishing off thier work. Mr. Next Door still didn't bother to ask. He even had the cheek to come into our yard to speak to the builders!

Really should have said NO………..! :-@

We had a card posted through the door yesterday. The name on it wasn't us, but the first line of the address was the same as ours.
The rest of the address was for a place in Essex! Now apart from the fact that Essex is about 200 miles away, how did the people who sort the mail not notice this slight anomaly? The postman must be blind (doubt it), stupid or just plain lazy! It's no wonder the Royal Mail are losing money left right and centre.

Mind you they'll probably get sold off ASAP if their Chairman has anything to do with it. Allan Leighton was the Chief Executive of Asda who sold it to Wal * Mart and then did a runner with all his cash! Asda went downhill after that (well took a nosedive to be honest).

Due to the nature and quality of driving in England, the DOT has devised a new scheme in order that good drivers may identify poor drivers.

For this reason, from the 01 June 2006, drivers who are found to be driving badly, inconsiderately or both, will be issued with flags (white with a red cross).

These flags must be clipped to the door of the car and be visible to all other drivers and pedestrians.

Those drivers who have shown particularly poor driving skills will have to display a flag on either side of the car to indicate their inadequacy and general lower intelligence mindset, for one and all to see.

Please circulate this information to as many other motorists as possible, so that everyone is aware of the meaning of these flags.

Yesterday we had a rather nice day out at the West Midlands Safari Park and the Severn Valley Railway. The safari park was great as we got there early to avoid the crowds. You can really get close to the animals, including lions, tigers, elephants and giraffes. We even had a horned cow put it's head through the window to say hello!

 

After the safari park we went to the railway. We only went to Bewdley, but it was a nice trip. It was interesting to see that the safari park was packed when we went past on the train! We were hauled by the 8F and the Stanier Mogul. All in all a jolly day, and we completely missed getting drowned in the showers 😉

 

Trouble is that yesterday's Bank Holiday, was traditionally Newcastle's carnival day. However, the political geniuses who ran our Borough Council cancelled it as they said it cost too much. This is after they spent nearly £1000 last year on Posh 'n' Becks impersonators! 

It was replaced by a Jazz and Blues festival. OK, not too bad, but all the gigs were in local pubs and not in town or at the Brampton. They still had charity stalls in town, but forgot to tell most of the charities that they could still have a stall. Well done local politicians!