Packed and ready to go

Thats me packed, house is tidy, garden tidy and I'm ready to go. Staying with daughter tonight and she is taking me to the bus tomorrow, the bus takes me to Stansted where, sometime early Sunday morning I shall fly away to LaRochelle. I've booked a hotel in LaRochell for two nights, hopefully my sister will join me and then off to her house in rural France to sit and chill for the month..................bon voyage

Introducing a new blog

This is something I've been thinking about for a while. It's a 'work in progress', and it's obviously going to take a while to get all my work photographed and posted but; the general idea is that this is the online gallery for  my own work. I’ll try to get as much as I can posted before I go to France but I suspect this is going to take a while. If you do visit, please read the introduction first ( its the only bit thats finished), I will post more as and when i have the time. 

Introducing
THE PAINT SHED
http://thepaintshed.blogspot.co.uk/

Travel kit complete.

Think I’ve found what I’m looking for on eBay. It has a 9 inch screen and should get here by the middle of next week which gives me plenty of time.
The write up says;  9” Android Tablet PC, eBook Reader, Black, Storage Capacity 8 GB, Resolution 800 x 480, Operating System Android, Internet Connectivity Wi-Fi & 3G, Backlight. 
And the package includes;
1. Tablet PC x1
2. AC Charger x1
3. User's Manual x1
4. USB OTG Cable x1
5. USB Cable x1
6. Free Pouch  x1 (Random pick)
7. Capacity Stylus x1 
8. 4GB Micro SD Card x1
9. Leather Case and Keyboard

I’m not exactly sure what all that means, I think it probably means more to some of you than it dos to me. But in the end I decide to buy even though I don’t really understand, sometimes a leap of faith is required and I’m going to have find finding out what it can do. I paid just over £100 and that includes a 2 year warranty which I thought was OK Together with my camera and the little external hard drive
(Samsung 300 GB) that I already have, I think my travel kit is now complete.

Have camera will travel

I think I’ve finally caught up with my self. Yesterday was sunny, no rain and no wind, I spent the whole day in the garden. (Garden blog to follow shortly).
Today I couldn’t get out in the garden; we had gale force winds that would have blown me away. Today I’ve spent the day on the computer, I think I’ve caught up here and am finishing off the day with a couple of new posts.
That wonderful red shiny thing at the top of the page is my new camera, it arrive in the post today. It’s a Fuji S4500 specification as follows……………
•    30x optical zoom
•    24mm wide-angle lens
•    14 megapixel CCD sensor
•    3 inch, hi-res LCD screen
•    Up to ISO 6400
•    720p HD movie recording
I’m totally in love with it; it’s a very long time since I’ve had a decent camera. It’s destined to be my new travelling companion. The next thing I’m looking for is a ‘tablet’; apparently that’s the correct terminology, its somewhere between a cell phone and a laptop. I’m thinking a 10 inch would do me nicely. I think one of those  will give me the ability to keep up with every one, post travel blogs and photos, check emails, do a little basic Google and all while remain well within the strict weight/ size limits imposed by travelling. I can’t afford the iconic ipad, but there are plenty of tablets out there that are quite similar and half the price. I’m at a bit of a loss a far as buying this essential piece of equipment goes, ‘tablets’ and suchlike are really not my area of expertise so if any one has any suggestions, please………….let me know.

Poppy, my latest paintnig.

Poppy, my friends step granddaughter………..I painted this as a birthday present for my friend. Luckily she loves it. I've been thinking about making another blogger account (yes ANOTHER one). I thought maybe having all my paintngs together on one site may be a nice idea..............
feed back on this idea please..:-)

Another very rushed catch up

Another very rushed catch up.

I don’t remember how I ever had time to go to work. I seem to remember the last thing I posted was a description of the new bathroom and a tale of how I had been virtually evicted from my house while it was being fitted. I was allowed back home late Monday night. I spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday cleaning away dust and builders debris and then Wednesday evening; I went back to my daughters house to look after the dogs and the house while they went to Ireland for a few days. I ended up taking my other daughters child with me because she had to work and couldn’t find child care. The house I’m looking after is about 5 miles out of town, two bus rides away and in the middle of the country. I’ve been busy looking after the dogs, amusing the grandchild and keeping the two wood stoves going to ward of the chilly country air. An inconvenient coincidence is that today; while staying in the country, I have to be in my own house all day to wait for the all important phone call from the electricity supplier to discuss how much they are going to increase my monthly payments by. Granddaughter and I were up at the crack of dawn, sorted the dogs out, raked the stoves, loaded enough logs to burn until we return this afternoon and were sitting on the fist bus before eight this morning. I’m dreading this phone call, apparently there was something wrong with my electricity meter, it was not accurately recording what I used, they replaced the meter, recalculated what I owe and are about to call me to give me the bad news. I then have to take the granddaughter back on two buses, hope the stoves have not gone out, feed the dogs, feed the granddaughter and get an early night ready to do the whole thing again tomorrow.
Tomorrow I have another inconvenient coincidence; the washing machine repair man is coming to look at my machine. In the midst of cleaning my house and washing curtains and sofa covers, the machine stopped working and tomorrow was the earliest day they could get someone out to fix it. This means I have to be back in my own house again tomorrow to wait for the repair man.
My daughter is coming back from Ireland late Sunday and I should be staying back home from Monday morning. On Monday I will only have twelve days before leaving for France. During those twelve days I have optician appointment, dentist appointment, eye hospital check up, visits to sick friend in Dundee and another friend staying with me for three days. I think that leaves me with about five free days to do all the things I need to do before going to France. I’ll attempt some work in the garden and maybe even hang the wall paper in the bathroom which will completely finish it off.
I still have a garden full of builders’ rubble and the old bathroom set plus, lots of assorted junk from my two sheds (thought I would take this opportunity to empty the sheds of years worth of accumulated rubbish) all waiting to be taken to the tip. I’m not sure exactly when that is happening but the daughter who is in Ireland is going to arrange the trip to the tip sometime next week.
A rather shifty looking young man driving a white van pulled up outside my garden and asked if he could have the old taps. As well as the taps from the bathroom there were about four other sets of old taps turned out from my shed. I said sure just take what you want; it’s all going to the tip anyway. He then sorted through every thing and took all the assorted taps, an old shower, a complete set of pine bathroom accessories, cabinet, mirror, towel rail, loo roll holder etc, an old TV, an old vacuum cleaner, a pile of childrens videos (who has a video player these days every one has DVD’s?), a pile of old wall brackets plus the pine shelves they support and he even detached the pine toilet seat from the old toilet and took that. He opened every bag of builders rubble, old tiles and stuff to check there was nothing of value in any of them. My kids thought I was silly to let such a ‘shifty’ looking person into my garden and sort through the rubbish but I don’t like sending any thing to the tip if it can be used and was quite happy to let him take things away. In fact I doubt I would ever have turned my shed out and agreed to so much going to the tip if they had not ‘encouraged me’. The bit that made me laugh was when he finished taking any thing that could possibly be of any use to any one, or had any sort of resale value, he then asked if he could take the rest of the rubbish to the tip for me for a small fee. I did think that was a bit of a cheek.

At the moment; much as I would like to, I’m not getting the time to go round visiting and commenting; and if things carry on like this, it may be another month or so, (when I get back from France), before I settle down and get back into visiting every one regularly. I can only apologise, I never imagined the first couple of months of retirement would be so busy. I’ll keep you posted and try my best to get round and visit before I disappear off to France for the Month.

The handsome looking chappie at the top is a fine looking garden ornament, described on the box as ‘’ a decorative bird, a stylish eyecatcher for every garden made from corrosive resistant metal’’.  My granddaughter spotted him while we were out doing some grocery shopping. If I ever have time for gardening this year………..he is destined to stand next to the pond. 

New Bathroom installed, working and complete.

The new bathroom is installed, plumbed in and working beautifully thanks to my daughter and her hard working partner. I have been away from my house for more than a week. They started last Monday and didn’t leave until almost ten tonight. There is one wall that was not tiled and I’ll be hanging the wallpaper myself as soon as I can. 

Wednesday I’m off to buy the finishing touches, bathroom cabinet, chrome loo roll holder, chrome bin, etc but for now…………….I have a house full of dust to clean. I’ve been a bit of a nomad this last week, camping out at different daughters houses on different days, and while I’m away its quite difficult for me to use the computer. 

But I’m home now and even though it’s pretty late, I’m about to make a start on the cleaning, it could take a while……………..:-)
This must be the best retirement present any one has ever recieved. Never in a million years did I think my bathroom would ever look like this.