Last week was quite political with plenty to rant about. Hopefully this week will be a bit lighter.
Fri 24th July - up early and back to my ‘job’, our first guests have been staying at our place in Owermoigne for a week so it's down there to make sure everything is ok and help out with anything that needs doing. I was down there before 9.30 even after stopping off at Tesco in Shaftesbury on the way down to get a few things for my mother. The guests had left before I arrived and they had not left it in too bad condition. The grass hadn't grown much so that saved me a job. I rushed through a few things and said to my housekeeper, Becki, that I needed to get away early as my mother was having scaffolding put up at her house for a chimney repair and I needed to make sure that was going ok.
I left just before 11 and went into Dorchester to see my mother, the scaffolders had turned up just after 8am and had nearly finished by the time I got there. They had done a good job and left before 12. My builder, Wayne, is starting on Monday to do the repair.
Again I was in a hurry to get back as our ‘mystery delivery’ that I mentioned on last week’s blog was supposed to be delivered between 1-2pm. I left around 12.30 and got home at 2pm. The box had arrived a bit earlier so Josh and I carried it out eagerly to the Shed for installation. Just imagine the excitement and anticipation we were experiencing. We had found online a new handpump for cask ales with a connection to ‘bag in box’. As you know we have a weekly delivery of bag in box and although good, the extra oomph it will get from passing through the pump will make it just like having a pint at the pub. It was supposed to be very easy to put together and should be working within 5-10 mins. They were right, it was very easy and we decided the first thing was to run some cleaning solution through the pipes. This is where things stated to go wrong, there was no suction and we could hear that air was being sucked in when we pulled the pump. When Josh tried to tighten the bottom pipe connection, the whole bottom section of the pump fell off. We put it back together but still the same. Then Josh found that when the bottom fell off, a circular washer with a transparent interior had also fallen out into the box we had underneath. So assuming that this was the problem we again put it all back together, finally we were able to get the cleaning solution to be pulled through the lines, however where the bottom had fallen off it was leaking badly. Despite our efforts in tightening this up and moving around the washer etc it still leaked. So, next step was to contact the manufacturer, the website front page stated they were only open until 12.30 on Friday but when going into their FAQs and installation issues it stated that they were open until 17.00 Mon-Fri and also they had a live chat facility which was available until midnight 7 days a week! I rang and there was only the opportunity to leave a message, which I did. There was no link to a chat facility but there was an online contact form which I completed. I also sent them a message via their messenger service. All with no response, I also put a comment on Twitter that I was not impressed. Finally at 7pm I had a reply on messenger saying that they closed at 12.30 on Friday but sent me a link to a video telling us how to put it together. I replied that we were fully aware of how to put it together as we had viewed a video before making our purchase and also re-confirming that the bottom had ‘fallen off’. I also suggested in no uncertain terms that they amend their FAQs to update their opening times and delete reference to their chat facility. He replied stating that he would contact me on Monday. We had spent the best part of the afternoon messing about with this, our 20 ltrs of bag in box was delivered about 4.45pm, so it was just back to the usual pour. We hadn't told Grunters about our purchase and was hoping to surprise her with a decent pint on her return from work but all this had ‘p****d on our fireworks’ from a great height. Still we just carried on as normal and had a few pints!
Sat 25th July - Raf rang yesterday and asked if we would gave Willow for the day as they were off getting Indy mated again. They dropped her off around 9am, she was as good as gold throughout the morning and enjoyed her egg and soldiers and grated cheese which she particularly liked. We then took her for a walk with Albie across the fields to Giles Wood and also down the canal a bit in search of ducks. Unfortunately today there were no ducks in sight and with the steady but fairly light rain we made our way back to the car. She was well tired by the time we got back but had walked all the way but had slowed down considerably. She fell asleep in the car on the way home so Anna carried her in and plonked her down on the settee for an hour or so snooze. Me and Josh retired to the Shed in the afternoon, Grunters had gone out to visit her friends. I had caught sight in the morning on Facebook of a Yorkshire Cocktail, in this instance it was a pint of Carling with a straw in but also having a mini pork pie attached to the rim. I obviously copied this in to Grunters as it would be her idea of heaven but I also suggested a pint of Stealth. When she got back from her visiting Josh asked if she wanted a pint, which obviously she agreed to! She went in to sort herself out when he suggested that I nip indoors to get a mini pork pie out of the fridge to make her a Yorkshire Cocktail. She was obviously highly delighted when she came back out to the Shed to see the pint of Covert with a pork pie on the rim with a straw. She moaned but within a minute I managed to get a picture of her stuffing down the pie!!!
Sun 26th July - Why have we got a homosexual dog with a foot fetish? Albie will not leave me alone, he keeps licking my feet and strangely my watch? I have washed my feet, arms, wrist and watch many times but it still sends him into ‘hump mode’. Nobody else in the house is having problems but Alb has taken a fancy to me for some reason and will not leave me alone. I even googled this morning whether dogs liked the smell of coconut as we had coconut smelling shower gel and hand wash. Nothing there to say that dogs were particularly attracted to it and also yesterday I had put on loads on hand gel on both my hands and feet in the hope of putting him off but it still didn't put him off! He is a great dog but it can get a bit wearing when he constantly tries to hump you!!
We made a nice ham, spinach and ricotta Lasagne before football started, then watched the mighty Saints come back from 1 down to win 3-1 and overtake Everton into 11th place for the season. I am going to have £20 on Saints finishing in the top 8 next season. It would be a much better bet than Spurs winning any form of trophy!
Announced yesterday that anyone visiting Spain have to self isolate for 14 days, we had planned going out in September but luckily we haven't booked the flights yet. Spain have a much more rigorous COVID regime than we have and have to wear masks everywhere, many of the outbreaks there are regionalised and can be sorted locally just like Leicester and other Northern areas in this country, but for some obscure reason the Government have decided to shut down the whole of Spain to us all!
After football we had the Lasagne, it was very good!
Mon 27th July - took Albie out for his daily walk to Giles Wood, it was raining steadily but fairly
lightly. He was a pain in the arse, running off after other dogs and going off to ‘meet’ other people. He spent most of the walk on his lead but because of the rain the ground is very slippery and getting quite muddy. If he pulled on the lead it felt like you were going to slip arse over head. Tomorrow his walk will be pavement based!
Back for lunch, still not heard anything from Pint365 about our beer pump although he said we would speak Monday, so I messaged them and got the response that they would call me shortly. About half an hour later he rang, offering either a whole new unit and for us to package up and send back to old one, or more quickly, a replacement cylinder unit which would take 5-10 minutes to fit. I opted for the replacement part which he was going to send out immediately. We will see how good this is and whether it completely sorts the issue.
We use quite a bit of greaseproof/baking paper, usually to line baking trays to stop anything sticking. Normally we get the cheap supermarket stuff but when we last ran out we couldn't find any in the supermarket. When we were in Dorset a couple of weeks ago we saw some Bacofoil non-stick baking paper in The Range so bought some, strangely enough when Josh was shopping that week he saw some exactly the same so bought it without knowing that we already had some. We have been using it for the last week or so, it is definitely worth the small extra cost, it tears off well and is very non stick, much better than the supermarket own brands.
Had another ‘standard reply’ from Michelle Donelan, this time in respect of her voting for Clause 17 which gives government to power to sell off the NHS and to agree trade deals without having agreement of parliament. Her reply was patronising effectively stating that I did not understand what Clause 17 was attempting to do and how committed she was to the NHS and ensuring that it was not sold off. What happens remains to be seen, I will retain her response for future reference if anything does happen.
Had a message to say that our replacement part for the beer pump will be delivered tomorrow, hopefully it will work this time, fingers crossed!
Tues 28th July - one whining dog this morning, he seems to have a burst of energy and senses that its a nice day, he is very restless, I think he will need a good run out today. Took him to our usual run at Giles Wood, despite him being a pain in the arse this morning he was very good on our walk. Hopefully it will tire him out for the rest of the day!
Our new cylinder for the beer pump arrived, it only took us about 10 mins to replace and now it works perfectly first time around. We were well happy with it and Grunters was able to use it for local brewery week on Craft Beer hour.
Anna took Albie out for a walk in the evening as well which seemed to settle him down better.
My mother is finally having her chimney repaired, Wayne couldn't start yesterday due to the rain
but made a start today, thank goodness for that it will stop her going on about it!
Wed 29th July - Albie us being good again this morning, he was also reasonably well behaved on his morning walk at Giles Wood.
Josh decided to do the shopping a day early this week as it's supposed to be hot tomorrow and he didn't fancy wandering around in a mask in that heat, he is also planning to go in to see granny and grandad.
Boris and co have put Visitors returning from all of Spain on 14 days quarantine, although there are spikes in parts of Spain the majority us as good or better than UK, especially the Canaries and Balearics. I think they should consider targeting certain areas for action. I can't help thinking that the government ( Dominic Cummings), are trying to line up other countries to take the fall in the event of another spike in the UK!
Decided to vacuum the Shed, clean the windows inside and out and spray and clean all the stools and tables.
I was on the phone to my mother when Wayne, my builder, called on our landline to check whether it was ok to replace my mothers’ shower unit. Her electric shower had packed up but she didn't want to tell me as I would say to rip out her bath and replace it with a walk in shower. I have been telling her to do that for ages as she is 91 and finds it increasingly difficult to climb in and out of the bath to have a shower, but will she listen!!! Exasperated I told him to go ahead and just replace the unit. She then told me that it had broken only yesterday, I don't believe her, especially when she then said she had previously asked her neighbour if he could replace it!
Thurs 30th July - a hot day, took Alb for his usual walk to Giles Wood and out by the canal. Had a short snooze on the sofa early afternoon then sat outside for a beer, it was so hot I had to come indoors. Josh made a form of chilli with biltong for dinner which we ate outside as it was still warm out. We sat there until about 9pm having a few drinks outside.
Back down to Owermoigne tomorrow for the next changeover.
After all these weeks I think that this will be my last ranting blog. It has got me through lockdown giving me the opportunity to get things off my chest. I hope that it has given you some sort of entertainment over the last 4 months or so! I will continue to do a few ad hoc blogs when something annoys me! Thanks for taking the time to read them.
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