What have you been doing today?

[fillyboy]

What skilled worker can you get to come to your house and work nearly 3 hours for £55 these days?

Not me.

 

[Mottie]

Came out this morning to go on my usual dog walk, started up the Golf to let it warm up, had a kettleful of warm water to defrost the screen, put the wipers on (after making sure they weren’t frozen to the screen and…nothing. No wipers. Wasn’t going to sod about then so I went in the A3. When I came back, I went to check the fuses under the bonnet, pulled the bonnet release cable and didn’t hear the bonnet pop up. When I looked closer, I saw that it was already up. Some cars, Golf’s included, won’t let the wipers work unless the bonnet is latched so that was my problem but looking closer, the battery cover was off so I think someone had tried to pinch my battery in the night and was disturbed. I didn’t use the car yesterday but I remember when Mrs Mottie went to unlock the A3 yesterday morning, she pressed the Golf fob instead of the Audi one (she has both on her key ring that would put a jailer to shame) so it must have been unlocked all night. I’d have been gutted if they had nicked the battery, I’ve not long replaced it!

 

[Brigadier]

I’ve not long replaced it!

Perhaps they've been on here, and already knew what to pinch..........

 

[Mottie]

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

£55 for three hours and a van + everything else to pay for, you gotta wonder what she must actually be earning after all that.

 

[Mottie]

£55 for three hours and a van + everything else to pay for, you gotta wonder what she must actually be earning after all that.

That’s what I thought. A fully fitted out dog wash van too. Maybe she spends a bit more time at first to get to know the dog? Just spoke to my mum, she has a different mobile groomer that comes to her and she only takes 45 minutes and charges £45. Mind you, my mum has a dog the size of a rabbit! Her groomer wouldn’t do ours as she says she has a bad back and can only do small dogs!

 

[Mottie]

Mrs Mottie and her sister are worrying about the cold spell coming up and the possibility of freezing pipes/damp in their mums vacant house. They tried putting the heating on but it wasn’t coming on so I went round to investigate. Useless brother wasn’t going round to help so I had to step in. Standard heat only boiler, vented system with a hot water cylinder, 3 port motorised valve. Y plan I believe. Been switched off for a few months. Hot water was coming on but not the heating. Thinking back to the problem I had with our system, I wondered if it was the motorised valve sticking. Tried powering off the system then back on a few times but no luck. That would work with mine when mine had been off for a week or so. Next attempt, give the three port valve a couple of whacks. That did the trick. Turned it off and on a few times and it was working 100%. Set the timer and left it to come on a couple of times a day at a low temperature - 13°. Job done!

Pah. Mrs Mottie called in there yesterday and the heating wasn’t on. Useless brother is getting his useless plumber mate to go round and fix it but can’t go till Monday as he's away till then. Mrs Mottie was worried that the pipes are going to freeze and burst so we've just had a 2 hour round trip to give the 3 port valve another whack! While I was there I decided to turn off the water. Two stop cocks under the sink, both seized and when I freed them off, neither of them turned the water off so I turned it off in the street. At least Mrs Mottie won’t be fretting all night!

 

[HERTS P&D]

Tie the lever on the 3 port valve open with an elastic band.

Andy

 

[Mottie]

Tie the lever on the 3 port valve open with an elastic band.

Andy

The lever is as stiff as f*ck Andy. I’m wondering whether it could be the valve and not the head. I’ll let his mate sort it out.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Trying to make sense of all my LAN cable wiring, installed and much modified over the years, testing and labelling them all up.

 

[Murdochcat]

Getting some exercise and fresh air on a golf course

 

[Mottie]

My birthday present from Mrs Mottie arrived early today - a DJI mini 4K drone. Spent the evening charging it up, reading up on it, setting it all up, updating firmware etc. took it outside, calibrated it, locked on to the satellites, got the 'Ready to fly' message…..and bottled it! Too dark. I’m allowed one test flight and then it’s got to be wrapped up for my birthday at the end of the month. I’m going to wait till I have good weather and take it to an open space - don’t want to lose or crash it on my first outing.

 

[securespark]

Up in Lancs to help parents in law to clear out their static. They've decided it's too much to pay every year (£5400) for the reduced use it's getting now.

Plus, the site has changed hands a couple of times since they first moved onto it. Each time, charges have been increased massively.

IDK how these places get away with charging what they do.

Put your 'van on someone else's land and you open yourself up to all sorts of pumped up charges.

You pay a premium for leccy, a premium for gas, a premium for water and sewerage charges, you have to use their approved tradespeople if you want any jobs doing on the 'van.

If you want to take the static off site, they charge thousands.

They want the decking chopped up and removed and if you can't do it, they charge £750.

The van is pretty much worthless as they won't buy it off you and would charge 25% of the selling fee plus the thousands to take it off site if someone else bought it.

To cap it all, the leccy ran out and the smallest card the folks could buy was £20.

So, the thing is being left where it is, with a full gas bottle and nearly £20 quid's worth of leccy.

I wouldn't give them the s*dding keys!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Up in Lancs to help parents in law to clear out their static. They've decided it's too much to pay every year (£5400) for the reduced use it's getting now.

Plus, the site has changed hands a couple of times since they first moved onto it. Each time, charges have been increased massively.

IDK how these places get away with charging what they do.

Put your 'van on someone else's land and you open yourself up to all sorts of pumped up charges.

My dad was caught out, by the very same racket, decades ago. People retiring to statics are often similarly affected, and it's way past the time the government put rules in place to stop the racket.

 

[securespark]

Broken my foot real bad...

F'in typical!

Went to charge the car and the stupid forecourt was painted with thick smooth blue paint. Coupled with the rain, it was mega slippy I slipped onto my back and heard a massive cracking noise from my left leg as I went down.

Mrs S rang an ambo but they told us it would be 5 hours. I was on cold wet concrete, so another bloke who was charging his car helped Mrs S to push, pull and drag me onto the back seat. Went to A&E locally and had it assessed.

Was given some oramorph which helped a bit, then into X-ray. My foot was moved about abruptly and it hurt like hell.

When the X-rays came through, it turned out I'd done a good job: I have broken three ankle bones, left, right and rear.

So I went to have it "reduced": they gave me something to suck a bit like a vaping thing which made me feel really woozy. Eventually, I got sedated and they pulled and wrenched the joint back into place, which, despite sedation was forking agony.

According to Mrs S, I said all sorts of stupid stuff when coming round....

So I'm stuck at A&E because the physio doesn't trust me on my weak right leg not to go arze over tit with crutches. I have to get assessed tomorrow morning for a Zimmer frame.

Then I'll need surgery with screws and plates to hold it all together.

While I am in plaster, I have to have injections to prevent DVTs.

I've got all sorts of appointments, family get-togethers, a dental appointment and a Christmas meal for 10 to do!

I still consider myself lucky despite this. The way I fell, I landed with the back of my head on the kerb.

It could so easily have been game over, so that's good!

The bones at the bottom should be closer together.