Finding the chase and cutting to it

Over the past few months, I’ve been discussing reducing our energy footprint and especially our bill. Really this is about achieving the best bang for your buck and is one of the reasons the world is looking to incentivise reducing our carbon and other emissions. We were lucky and did this early enough that we […]

We moved house 7 years ago (almost to the date) and got a bit of a shock when our first month’s energy bill came in – our electric bill was £101.  For a month. My friends are all groaning at this point, as I tell of how I sat in the kitchen looked up to […]

My name is Sam J Watkins and since I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1977 at the age of four I have been bone crushingly tired. This phrase was used by a politician returning to the Scotish Parliament after the birth of her child. I had a baby in 2000 and the lowering […]

On Friday, Mark Wild, Chief Executive from Crossrail spoke these immortal words – while we understand the engineering, the software is completely new and is performing a complex task. We don’t know how it is going to perform. Today’s computer systems are hugely complex and consist of interlocking pieces which need to work together perfectly.  […]

On our recent ski trip we discovered we’d lost the driver’s side dipped beam lamp.   Which is not exactly a legal position to be in but we were heading home and didn’t have a spare bulb – plus, I think I saw it go when we checked the orientation of the bulbs on our return […]

Having finally straightened out all of my finances (no real debt just gaining some wiggle room) and looking at what we’ve done round the house the past 6 years, I’ve bought some blinds to replace the venetian blinds we had everywhere. We’re reasonably lucky: every window upstairs in identical in width and height, so the […]

and the chicks for free is the line from Dire Straits. Totally unPC these days but with Brexit and interest rates in the UK finally making a difference to our exchange rates, it makes sense to invest some free time into something productive. Eh, what are you on about? Many moons ago, we asked our […]

If you’re like us, you woke this morning to find some things had magically changed their time and some things haven’t. It’s been a very long time since you couldn’t rely on your computer and phone to align to the change in time but if like us you have some smart/programmable systems in your home, […]

In May 1990, my parents bought a Stag Dinning Set: an extenable “ebony stained” table, six chairs including two carvers, finished in dusky pink velour. Today I finished renovating the last carver in Antique Gold damak material. Now I am heading for a relaxing soak before enjoying the fruits of my labour by having take […]

0Having started my upholstery odyssey a few weeks ago, I have reached the magic half way stage and this is what I have learnt. A staple removal tool is worth its weight in gold.  I stripped four chairs in less than three hours. A staple gun is not enough, you need around 4,000 odd staples […]