Saturday 22/11/14 to Saturday 29/11/14
Sunday 23/11/14
We’ve been having problems with our solid fuel fire just recently. It
just doesn’t seem to be burning as well as it should. At first we put it down
to the different coal we’ve been using but, when we have both airways opened
and still have a faint glow to the coal, not to mention smoke finding its way
out of the top vent, we knew there was something amiss.
Sheila reckoned the flue was probably all gunged up and, when she
checked in her diary for the last time we swept the chimney, and discovered
that it was back in May, well, I just had to take a look.
The first thing I noticed was that the short stack had split and, quite
probably the missing chunk of inner lining was now at the bottom of the flue.
Luckily the weather is quite mild and made the decision to let the fire go out
quite easy. However, as you would expect, it’s raining this morning, so the job
is going to be a pretty mucky one.
Sheila and I love Sudoku and now buy three different books each month.
One of these is Puzzler, which has Sudokus and a mix of other puzzles,
including guest puzzles.
This month’s book has a puzzle called Gold Mine, which consists of a
bunch of squares within a bigger square and has the seven dwarves digging for
gold for Snow White. There are obvious obstacles along the way, which includes
several rock falls, marked by shaded squares. There are also, supposedly, other
barriers along the way, such as poisoned apples, all put there by the wicked
witch.
The object of the puzzle is for the dwarves to find their way down the
mine shaft, avoiding all these obstacles. With me so far?
Now, all the squares, except for the rock falls, have numbers in them
and these are telling you that there are so many obstacles within the nine
squares surrounding that one square. Yeah, we’re confused too!!
We can’t make head or tail as to how we are supposed to find our way
around these obstacles, not even after looking at the answer to the puzzle. I
don’t think we are particularly thick, but, having thought long and hard about
it I have resorted to emailing the compiler for an explanation. I’ll let you
know the outcome as soon as I hear from her.
Monday 24/11/14
Well, winter has arrived with a severe frost this morning. Our cratch
cover is as stiff as a board and the frost is crunchy underfoot. But, since
we’re not planning on going anywhere special today, the weather doesn’t matter.
I might even start on those flower boxes!
It was raining quite heavily yesterday morning, so it was on with the
wet weather gear and outside to clean the chimney. Much to our surprise though
it didn’t take very long to do, with just a few pokes with a stick and iron
bar, then down with the flue brush. Our fire now burns as bright as it ever did
and now has a new stack on top. Lovely!!
What we really wanted was a stainless steel stack, but the chandlery at
Braunston didn’t have one of the size we wanted. Later in the day, whilst
taking Alex for a walk, we spotted a van belonging to a boater who sells them.
We had completely forgotten about him and will have to wait until our new one
has given up the ghost.
Tuesday 25/11/14
The message I sent to Puzzler Magazine regarding the Gold Mine puzzle,
was returned as undeliverable. When I checked the address of the person
concerned, this came as no surprize because I had missed out the ‘r’ at the end
of Puzzler. So, I have resent the message with the correct address. Hopefully
we’ll get some sense back.
Yesterday we only ventured up to the surgery with Alex and stayed in
for the rest of the day. Today however, since the car hasn’t been run since
Saturday and the weather has been somewhat frosty, we’ll be driving over to
Daventry Country Park.
Wednesday 26/11/14
I finally received a message from the compiler of Puzzler magazine
regarding the solving of Gold Mine. She sent me an explanation sheet, which
describes how to solve a similar puzzle called Mosaic. Apparently, since the
numbers in the squares denote how many obstacles are hidden within the one
square and the eight surrounding it, it’s simply a matter of calculating which
squares are empty.
It still doesn’t make much sense but, if I print out the ‘cheat sheet’,
I just might be able to figure it out. I can’t say I’m all that confident
though.
Thursday 27/11/14
Another murky day yesterday during which we did nothing exciting, other
than take a walk to the Post Office. The rest of the day; for my part anyway;
was pretty much taken up with reading.
Later in the evening Alan’s son Ellis phoned, and has promised an email
explaining, what to do to speed up this laptop. Over the course of our
conversation I discovered that much of the problem could be with the Start-up
Menu, which lists those programmes that automatically load when I switch on. In
fact I don’t think I have much in there, but there’s another fact that could be
causing problems, and that’s Outlook, which I know is absolutely stuffed with
emails.
Today we’ll be taking the bus to Rugby to collect Sheila’s new glasses.
We have a Cross-Stitch Programme on the laptop, with which she designed a
pattern using a photo of Rusty. Although she doesn’t need glasses for reading,
she has had a pair made specifically for the cross-stitch, which is rather
fiddly.
Of course we’ll also stop off for a coffee at the Brooke café. Well, it
would be rude not to!!
Friday 28/11/14
Yesterday morning we caught the 09.38 to Rugby, with the main objective
of collecting Sheila’s new glasses.
We had several other errands to complete along the way, one of which
was to ask somebody at O2 why my new-fangled iPhone doesn’t seem to recognise
my Three WiFi unit. The nice man suggested I take it into the shop and, if it doesn’t
respond to their own dongle, they would send it away for repair.
We also called into B&M and Wilkinson’s for other odds and ends and
then Smith’s for the Mail and Suguru book. Sadly and in our haste to make time
for a coffee at Brooke’s, I picked up the November issue of Suguru, which I’ve
already completed.
So, with about 25 minutes to spare before our bus was due, we hurried
along to the café and enjoyed a coffee and scone. We were just buttering our
scones when Sheila said, “We’ve forgotten my glasses”. “Oh well”, says I,
“we’ll just have to take our time with the coffee and scones and take another
stroll around town”. We also called into M&S for other comestibles, which
saved us from leaving the bus at the Co-op in Crick and walking to the marina.
Later in the day we took a walk to the Post Office and picked up the
December issue of Suguru. Now, because I bought the November issue, I now have
two books of puzzles to do, simply because I’ve now forgotten how I completed
the old ones. I sometimes find enjoyment in re-reading a novel, and the same
goes for these puzzle books. This probably explains why there are market stalls
selling these books. Some of them may be old, but there’s still plenty of life
in them.
Incidentally, we did collect Wifey’s glasses, so I’m expecting her to
start on her cross-stitch of Rusty in the near future, which means less reading
and less outlay on new books.
Saturday 29/11/14
We had intended to shop at Sainsbury’s yesterday morning but, after
hearing about so-called Black Friday, we took a run over to Waitrose in
Daventry. Waitrose, in their infinite wisdom, deal in food and household goods,
I’m pleased to say, so they have no need of Black Fridays.
Whilst we were at Waitrose we bought some haddock, to go with a Daily
Mail recipe called Smoked Haddock Gratin. I have always believed that any
recipe containing ‘gratin’, would include cheese, but this recipe calls for crème
fraiche. What do I know, I’m only a man?
Anyway, this recipe also included thyme and calls for the steam frying
of some of the ingredients for 25 minutes, followed by 40 minutes baking in the
oven. Pah and phooey! So, instead of all that palaver, Wifey cooked the fish as
normal, added new potatoes and veg and used the thyme for the white sauce. What
a dish, superb and so much different than the use of parsley sauce. Great
stuff. Sadly, for some reason best known to the compilers of the daily Mail
recipe, most of the stuff they offer is, to our minds, just so much tat.
Just recently I upgraded my mobile to a Nokia Lumia and also upgraded
my WiFi to a 4G unit, both of which work just fine. I do have one problem
though, and that is that the phone doesn’t appear to recognise the WiFi unit
or, if it does, it doesn’t seem able to find and download a simple and free
game app. The phone is with O2 and the WiFi is with ‘Three’, so perhaps that
makes a difference. Who knows with modern technology? Also, having fiddled
around trying to find this game app, I now find that ’17 apps need my attention’.
What the heck does that mean??
So, I called into the O2 shop on Thursday and the nice man there
suggested that I take the phone in and, should they find that it doesn’t
respond to their own WiFi, they’ll send it away for repair. Hmmm! That could
take ages and, while the phone is away what do I do for a mobile? Nope! Since
the game isn’t all that important, I’ll wait until I next go to Harlow and see
if we can’t solve the problem using the pub WiFi.
Today we’ll be off to a big Garden Centre, somewhere outside Rugby,
where I’m hoping to find a real waterproof coat. I do have a heavyweight one,
but that’s for the really cold weather. What I’m looking for is a lightweight
one that will actually repel the rain. The one I have has been pretty useless
since the day I bought it, which was a few years ago.
Alex is doing just great and is settling in well. He does have one
fault in that he can be quite cantankerous when it comes to getting out of his
bed first thing in the morning. I usually leave him alone until he’s really
ready, but he stayed put until almost 6.30 this morning, and I had to use some ‘gentle
persuasion to get him on his feet. Even then he lay on his back and was having
none of it. Eventually I attached his lead and, with a ginormous sigh, he got
to his feet and headed for the door. Is it me, or is he really as bright as he
seems?
So, you fine bunch of readers, have a great weekend and stay safe.
Dave, Sheila and Alex.
No comments:
Post a Comment