Your day apart from gardening

[Oliver Buckle]

I have a low blood count, and an occult blood test came back positive, so I got an urgent referral for bowel cancer investigations. I do hope it doesn't muck up another Spring planting, There was losing my eye, then a big operation on blood clots in my leg, they have cost me two Springs, let's hope it is third time lucky, apparently only about one in ten tested come back positive.

 

[Sean Regan]

I've just bought another vintage tuner/amplifier on eBay.
I don't need one, I've three different ones and can only use two, as I've only two sets of speakers. But I like to ring the changes. It should arrive early next week.
It's a respected make.
The vendor has had over 1000 sales and has 100% positive feed-back. So I'm confident it will be OK.

Vendor's photo.

The same model was sold earlier in the week for a lot more than I paid for this one.

 

[Sean Regan]

I've been considering changing my car. I've been saying that for years. There's nothing wrong with the one I've got. It sailed through its MOT (again), in November.

I won't get another CRV, (I've had two) as I don't need one that size. But it will be another Honda. My last three cars have been new Hondas. But the next won't. At my age, any new car I buy, "will likely outlive me." Actually, if one lasts as long as my present one, I'd be 105.
I've been looking on-line at Honda Jazz. My brother-in-law has a petrol one, that particular model has been around for over 20 years. The boot's big enough for an electric trolley and golf bag.

But now they're hybrids and automatic. One of my regular golf partners bought a new one three years ago and likes it. I'll probably get a two or three-year-old one.

There's been a lot of stuff on-line about the introduction of re-testing older drivers. At my age, you have to apply for a new licence every three years.
But it's just an on-line box ticking exercise. I've just renewed mine.

Of course, doctors have a duty to contact the DVLC, if they consider one of their patients is becoming unfit to drive.
In which case a re-test is compulsory.

A golf club pal, (who no longer plays) who's older than am I, was in that situation last year.
We shouldn't have laughed when he told us, "I was doing OK, until we did a bit on the motorway and when I came off the slip road, I started going the wrong way round the roundabout and he failed me!"
He sold his car. He's now got a mobility scooter.

 

[Sean Regan]

The tuner/amp I bought on eBay arrived today. It's a well respected brand.
It's sometimes a "pig in a poke" buying on eBay, but I've rarely been disappointed with such purchases.
It came very well packed. For a forty-odd year old unit, it's in immaculate condition and everything works!

It doesn't have a tuning meter, but if you're too low or high, a little red light starts to increase in intensity on either side of the green and they disappear when you're spot on and the stereo light comes on. I've crap radio reception in my "office" (our back bedroom) and I'm using cheap bookshelf speakers, but I'm still impressed.
I've tried it out with a cassette recorder and that sounded good too.

I really didn't need this, as I've three other equally vintage tuner/amps all fully functional, but I've only two sets of speakers and just as few places, to put them. But I like to ring the changes, now and again.

I've put it on my YouTube channel.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Had an initial app. and examination, awaiting an endoscopy. Joy!

 

[tyronee]

When I’m not out in the garden, I’m usually tackling some home repairs. Lately, I’ve been looking into bathroom upgrades, and I came across Bath Fitter reviews. A lot of people say they do a great job with quick and professional installations. I’m considering them for a bathtub update—has anyone here used them before?

 

[Sean Regan]

When I’m not out in the garden, I’m usually tackling some home repairs. Lately, I’ve been looking into bathroom upgrades, and I came across Bath Fitter reviews. A lot of people say they do a great job with quick and professional installations. I’m considering them for a bathtub update—has anyone here used them before?

As they say, "each to their own." It depends on how much you want done.

I've changed our bathroom twice. The last time I did it was 20 years ago.
Just a case of a new suite and some units I built. I'd tiled it myself back in the late seventies when I fitted the first suite. But I had someone "tile over tile" before I fitted this one.

I also fitted this toilet and the concealed cistern.

But at the time I suspected that at some time the bath would have to go and be replaced by a walk in shower, as I anticipated my wife's disability would increase, the shower would become necessary and there wasn't room for both, in this small bathroom. I'd had the foresight to order extra tiles and some laminate for the floor for when this change would become necessary.

This was about ten years ago. I bought a Lakes shower at a huge discount from a supplier in the Midlands and some new units.

I then paid someone to fit the lot. (recommended by a neighbour).

Last year I changed the toilet to a "rimless one."

Specialists companies I'm sure will do an excellent job... well most... The people across the road had theirs done by such a company recently, (big local showroom), but they've been called back to it nearly a dozen times to fix "stuff." Quite often, big companies subcontract some of the work out. So the quality can be, a bit hit and miss.

The local guy who did ours, took him about four days to do it. He had to take out the old bath and basin unit, then tile the area which was behind the bath, then fit the units, the shower and the required floor laminate.
We were pleased with the result.

He quoted me £500 for the work, (ten years ago) including materials other than what I'd supplied.

The last few photos are recent, as the door seals of the shower, six in all, had yellowed due to age and the effect of sunlight in the last decade.

So until recently they looked like this.

But when I contacted Lakes about buying replacements, they told me they came under their "lifetime guarantee," so I just had to pay the postage, which saved me £70. So I can recommend them.

As I said, it's up to you, but I'd check on having it done by someone locally. Your local plumbing wholesaler will likely have some names of reliable tradesmen.

Get quotes, anyway, from more than one supplier.

 

[Sean Regan]

It's the end of a stressful week. My ever faithful twenty-year-old Honda CRV I'd had from new, has gone to a good home and has been replaced by a hybrid Honda Jazz Crosstar.

I didn't believe how complicated it could now be buying a car from a main dealer.
So many questions and forms to fill, even when you're paying cash..
I was lucky, they didn't want to give me much in part exchange. A twenty-year-old car, with several "Sainsbury's car park battle scars," would only go to auction. But whilst I was at the showrooms on Friday, a guy who said he just happened to passing, approached me in the car park and offered me three times what the dealer offered.

As they say, "there's many a slip between cup and lip," but he turned up at our house at the time agreed, yesterday, with his wife in her car, with the cash. He'd already insured it before he arrived!

So I took a taxi this afternoon to collect mine. I'm well pleased.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

So many questions and forms to fill, even when you're paying cash..

Used to be people were pleased by a cash deal, nowadays they seem more likely to be highly suspicious, surprised you didn't have a policeman asking where you got it?

 

[Sean Regan]

Used to be people were pleased by a cash deal, nowadays they seem more likely to be highly suspicious, surprised you didn't have a policeman asking where you got it?

I had a fight to get the money out of the bank.
I transferred it the day before, on-line, I'd also paid in the cash for my old car at the post office and got some money out of a cash machine. When I got home, I checked my bank account on-line again. I could see the cash deposit at the post office had been credited and the cash withdrawal at the ATM had been debited, but the payment for the car hadn't. So I had to phone Barclay's bank.
It took forever to get through, like most businesses now, "they'll try to do anything other than talk to you." Eventually I got passed to someone who could help.
I had to answer a boat-load of security questions before she would even talk to me.
I told her if it hadn't gone through by the following day, I wouldn't be able to collect the car!
She could see the payment, but it was being held up for, a "security check." But eventually, after asking me more questions, (as many as I'd been asked on-line when I was trying to pay it), she let it go through.
I'd transferred my insurance on the same day. So the car was insured from the midnight the night before I collected it. I downloaded the documents. But that didn't go out of my bank account until this morning!

 

[Sean Regan]

Not a good day yesterday.

We have a tall 50/50 Miele fridge/freezer. It must now be six years old. It wasn't cheap.
It's the second one we've had, the first had to be replaced under guarantee after three months, as it stopped working and their engineer couldn't fix it.

An overall disappointment, they couldn't have put less paint on it, as it's worn off on any sharp edges like the corners of the doors.

It has no end of settings, including "Party." Beefs up the cooling of the fridge part, as the door could be frequently opened. "Holiday," reduces electricity consumption as the doors won't be opened for several days.
There's even one for "Sabbath." I think that just turns the interior light off in the fridge part.
None of these settings we've ever used. As long as the fridge half stays on +5c and the freezer -18c. We're happy.

But now the freezer part is fine, it's holding -18c. But the fridge part is showing +16c. Putting it on "Factory re-set" cures it for a while as it comes back down to +5c, but after a few hours it's back at +16c. I've done that four times now.

So I phoned Miele's "service department."
Huh!

This was, "a very nice Indian woman, possibly working from home with her children, in a house in the foothills of the Himalayas, for no end of companies,"

Such people work from a provided script.

She had of course, no technical knowledge whatsoever and said she was unable to connect me with someone who had.
She gave me two choices, a sort of "lucky dip." I could either pay up-front £170 for a call-out plus parts, or £309, for a guaranteed repair for 12 months. Or if they can't fix it, that much off a new fridge/freezer. "They better fix it!"

Miele do have a "web chat" facility, that appears to be unmanned.

I've sent them a "strongly worded," e-mailed complaint, for what good that will do.

At the moment I've paid the £309, "upfront" as we need it fixed.

One advantage we have is that I nicked a shelf and a door rack off the one that was replaced, as there's never enough supplied.

I've moved everything but veg out of the freezer part (just in case) and put it in the two back-up freezers in the garage.

I emptied the decades old Budweiser fridge I keep in the tea-house of beer, and carried it down to the house and stuck it next to the sink until the other is fixed. So at least we have a working fridge.

How times have changed.

Fifty years ago we had a much smaller, "Hotpoint Iced-Diamond" fridge/freezer, which was trouble free for twenty-five years and when we replaced it with a larger one, "we had to beat the Hotpoint to death with a stick."

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Built in obsolescence, there is no profit in reliability and customers so satisfied they don't come back.

 

[Sean Regan]

I tackled another job this morning. The tap in our kitchen.

The kitchen units were fitted about 20 years ago and are in excellent condition. I did everything else, tiling, electrics, false ceiling with down-lighters, floor, etc.
But over time, the tap has become harder to rotate. It happened before, about eight years ago. If the body of the tap moves, it puts a strain on the connecting pipes, which might eventually cause one to crack and we'd have water everywhere.

Space in this kitchen is at a premium. To get at it, both these soft-close drawers have to come completely out. To do that, the door of the washing machine has to be open..no kidding!

Then I'm faced with this.
Above the flexible pipes there are two short lengths of 15mm copper pipe which connect to the tap unit. Behind them is a nut with a centre screw.
To get at it, I needed a socket on the end extension bar (by feel as even lying flat on my back with my head and shoulders inside the cupboard, I still can't see it) and turn it with the socket ratchet bar, (all at the age of 85).
Anyway, job done. My wife suggested, "I get a man in." But plumbers don't want these small fiddly jobs.

As I'd done it before, it wasn't too hard. Job done. The tap now turns without trying to move the body.

My ancient Budweiser fridge is next to the sink as this load of rubbish has gone wrong.

I've done four, "factory re-sets" which has got the fridge back down to +5c. But after about five hours, the temperature has gone back up again. Fortunately, the freezer half stays constant at -18c. But I've stopped doing re-sets, in case the freezer part packs up.

We can survive for the moment.
A Miele engineer is coming on Tuesday to fix it. I think it's either a fault with the computer or a faulty valve. But either way, it's going to cost me £309. We've not a lot of choice.

 

[Sean Regan]

The air pump I bought on eBay arrived this afternoon.
I did have one that plugged into a 12v socket in my CRV, but this stopped working after fifteen years, well it was working, but it had run out of puff. It couldn't provide enough pressure to open the tyre valve.

Like many modern cars, my Honda Jazz Crosstar has no spare wheel.
This is an "initiative, taken by many car manufacturers, to save money and annoy their customers."

You get, instead, a tiny air pump to attach to a can of sealant to fix a puncture.
Quite often this in the past has made the tyre unrepairable.
But I decided I needed a proper air pump, so I can, if I choose, check the tyre pressures after cleaning the car and add any necessary air.

Actually, the car is intelligent enough to tell me if any of my tyre pressures are low.
But it's not bright enough to tell me which one.

Anyway, it's very sturdy and surprisingly heavy and comes with a well-made zip bag.

The light can be, off, constant, or flashing, (dunno why).

All for £19.99 and free postage.

I was well impressed with this. It's made in Germany, but so was our Miele fridge/freezer.

 

[Sean Regan]

It's the time of the year when all my utility charges increase.

British Gas, who supply both our gas and electricity, produce on-line statements four times a year that you can download as a pdf. I've just had the one for the end of the financial year. I'm £100 in credit and they've estimated that what I'm paying monthly now will be enough to keep my out of the red for the next year.

No word yet from Trafford Council as to what this year's payments will be but, we know they will be increasing them by the maximum allowable, +7.9%

The pain in the bum, is North West Water.
I received an A4 size letter, with a load of bull on both sides, telling us what they will be doing over the next five years and the reason why the charges will be increased.
They couldn't be bothered to tell me by how much. Just said, "Check your April direct debit!"
Such arrogance!