What have you been doing today?

[Harry Bloomfield]

I came across a gadget online, which uses rope, pulleys, and attaches to the top of the awning rail. Pull the rope down, the awning is pulled up along the rail - but for £30 to £40. Something I can easily reproduce in my workshop, with the use of my lathe. So that has kept me out of the rain for the afternoon.

Years ago, I bought a cycle lift gadget, which pulled a cycle up out of the way, up to the ceiling - it was cheap, had lots of pulleys, rope and etc.. Though I didn't have a bike. So I made the above awning gadget out of those pulleys yesterday, still wet today, so I looked again at what was left of the bike gadget and found it had a pawl system built into it. You tug on the rope, it then locks the rope taking the weight.

My wheelie bins are in a bin store, with a hooks and rope attached to the lids - pull the rope, bin lids rise to allow things to be deposited in the bins. It would be handy, if the lids could be made to remain open, if a few things need to be put in. The bike pawl pulley is the perfect solution.

 

[Mottie]

Constantly changing tops!
Made myself a toasted bacon bagel for lunch. Sat down, first bite, brown sauce all down my front. Changed it for a new top that I bought when we were out this morning. Just took a roast chicken out of the oven for our dinner tonight, thought I’d nip off the little wings and have a little nibble at them. Chicken fat all down my new top. Now on my third top. Mrs Mottie is threatening to dig out one of the kids old bibs for when we actually sit down to eat later!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Chicken fat all down my new top. Now on my third top. Mrs Mottie is threatening to dig out one of the kids old bibs for when we actually sit down to eat later!

She decided to make us each an instant coffee while I was in working in the workshop, took matching coffee and sugar containers out the the cupboard, slipped, crashed the two together, and shattered both. Coffee and sugar all over, cleaned that mess up, finally got the coffee made and I managed to spill it on the settee

 

[Mottie]

Constantly changing tops!
Made myself a toasted bacon bagel for lunch. Sat down, first bite, brown sauce all down my front. Changed it for a new top that I bought when we were out this morning. Just took a roast chicken out of the oven for our dinner tonight, thought I’d nip off the little wings and have a little nibble at them. Chicken fat all down my new top. Now on my third top. Mrs Mottie is threatening to dig out one of the kids old bibs for when we actually sit down to eat later!

And again!
Dropped a roastie off of my fork, back onto the plate and splashed gravy onto my white T shirt. Mrs Mottie said I should have left the first one on.

 

[crystal ball]

And again!
Dropped a roastie off of my fork, back onto the plate and splashed gravy onto my white T shirt. Mrs Mottie said I should have left the first one on.

Many years ago we were eating out with some family, I dropped a roastie into my gravy and splashed four people

 

[Brigadier]

And again!
Dropped a roastie off of my fork, back onto the plate and splashed gravy onto my white T shirt. Mrs Mottie said I should have left the first one on.

Care home for you, sooner than you think, Mottie

 

[Mottie]

Care home for you, sooner than you think, Mottie

Yep - don’t let me anywhere near a bowl of soup FFS!

 

[Brigadier]

Constantly changing tops!
Made myself a toasted bacon bagel for lunch. Sat down, first bite, brown sauce all down my front. Changed it for a new top that I bought when we were out this morning. Just took a roast chicken out of the oven for our dinner tonight, thought I’d nip off the little wings and have a little nibble at them. Chicken fat all down my new top. Now on my third top. Mrs Mottie is threatening to dig out one of the kids old bibs for when we actually sit down to eat later!

When I have days like this, the worst part I know how it's going to end (but I'm powerless to stop it anyway)

The first thing, I just take a breath.
But I know that, eventually, stuff'll get launched, or smoshed.

Then the next thing. BP rising.....

The next thing is inevitable.
And so the destruction begins

 

[Mottie]

Just had to pop over the allotment. Not so much for my stuff but I'm looking after my allotment neighbours plants in his greenhouse so they needed watering. While I was there I measured the circumference of my pumpkins. Yesterday they were 14”. Today, one was 15.5” and the other 17”!

Oh, and I noticed that one of my plants in the greenhouse has got chilli's.

 

[Mottie]

Babysitting our grandson today while our son and daughter in law go to a wedding. Worn us ragged so far and he's staying the night!

Our daughter popped round to see him and stay for tea. Mrs Mottie suggested we went over the allotment and let him do a bit of picking and digging. Our daughter went home with a nice veggie collection. French beans, courgettes, cucumber, tomatoes, new potatoes, chilli's, onions, garlic, radish, beetroot, sweet corn, rhubarb, rosemary and cavolo nero.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Another BBQ, the third successive one. Pork skewers with maple syrup, baked potato and a salad. I've never had much liking for salads, but the suit BBQ's perfectly. I cannot remember when we last had chips, other than with F&C's. I've lost around 4Kg over the past few weeks, maybe a result of all the BBQ's we are having.

 

[securespark]

Constantly changing tops!
Made myself a toasted bacon bagel for lunch. Sat down, first bite, brown sauce all down my front. Changed it for a new top that I bought when we were out this morning. Just took a roast chicken out of the oven for our dinner tonight, thought I’d nip off the little wings and have a little nibble at them. Chicken fat all down my new top. Now on my third top. Mrs Mottie is threatening to dig out one of the kids old bibs for when we actually sit down to eat later!

I get food down my front most days.

It's partly to do with me being a clumsy b'stard, but mostly because I have a big belly that sticks out and catches all the drips...

 

[Mottie]

Babysitting our grandson today while our son and daughter in law go to a wedding. Worn us ragged so far and he's staying the night!

Absolutely f'cking exhausted. Mrs Mottie normally goes up to bed at 10.00. At 10.50 she was still upstairs trying to get him to go to sleep. Rather that let him sleep in one of the bedrooms, she will insist on setting him up a bed in our room. Of course, at 4.14 this morning he clearly announced "Nanny, Grandad, I’m not tired anymore". The crafty sod had seen the clock and when we told him to go back to sleep, he said he always gets up at 4.00! We let him get in bed with Mrs Mottie and I got in his bed but he kept talking and fidgeting so she got up with him at around 5.30 and I came down and swapped places with her at 6.30. Our son came to pick him up at 10.00. We both felt sick - it was like having jet-lag! Mrs Mottie still had to do a days work round her mothers - cooking, cleaning, cutting the grass etc and she won’t be home until around 5.30. I’ve taken the dog out for a walk and done the weekly shop and I’m going to have a little Kip before she gets home. An early night for both of us tonight!

We had a few euros left over from France the other week and they are all off to Italy tomorrow so I gave him what he calls some "Grandad Dollars" for his ice cream fund.

 

[Mottie]

Lazy day watching the F1 shootout and sprint race. Went over the allotment to drop off some clippings in my compost bins. One of my wild flower beds had come out nice with all the rain we've been having.

And look at these! A couple of tomato porn shots for @Notch7.

 

[Mottie]

Today I converted my 29,000 Amex points into Nectar points but not directly. If converted directly, 1 Amex point is worth 1 Nectar point but I have converted them into Avios points. Avios points convert at a better rate - 300 Avios points converts to 400 Nectar points. You can only convert in multiples of 300 so 28,800 Avios will get me 38,400 Nectar points which works out at £192 to spend in many places. https://www.nectar.com/card/spend