Preparedness for when

VJsmum

I don't watch much telly, but was at my dad's yesterday when an advert came on for an insurance company. The basic gist is that if you get burgled they will help to make a replica of stolen jewellery.

I got me thinking that they can only do this if they have a photo of it. So I am going to photo the few precious bits I have (mainly inherited stuff) and hold it on photobucket and a memory stick to ensure this can be done.

Sorry if this is something that everyone knows, but as I didn't, I thought it might help someone.

jk0

VJsmum wrote: »

I don't watch much telly, but was at my dad's yesterday when an advert came on for an insurance company. The basic gist is that if you get burgled they will help to make a replica of stolen jewellery.

I got me thinking that they can only do this if they have a photo of it. So I am going to photo the few precious bits I have (mainly inherited stuff) and hold it on photobucket and a memory stick to ensure this can be done.

Sorry if this is something that everyone knows, but as I didn't, I thought it might help someone.

Good idea VJ'smum. Don't forget to put a ruler in the photo, so the scale is known. Otherwise the insurer might send you a half scale version of what you lost.

Edit: Presumably you could email yourself a photo of the items as I mentioned earlier with my glasses prescription.

vivatifosi

GreyQueen wrote: »

Does anyone who watched the original 1970s series Survivor recall that there were at least two places where characters remark in passing that they need new (as in updated) glasses? That and dentistry would be major problems. Let's hope the world doesn't end, or if it does that my dentist allows me to kidnap him into the Tribe of GQ.:p

I've got a diddy dentistry kit that I bought in the USA. It has crown adhesive, stuff for a temporary filling and some instruments. I also have oil of cloves in my first aid kit. It's my second one. I used the first and it worked well.

[Deleted User]

mardatha wrote: »

I'm finding candles really dear- if anybody finds any cheap ones please post on here..

The cheapest I've found are in ASDA.

10 dinner table candles for £2.

From time to time, you will also find candles in their £1 racks.

A while back, I stumbled on packs of 4 Votive candles (burning time 8-10 hours per candle), and some packs of 2 pillar candles (burning time 28 hours per candle), in the £1 racks.

Finally, they sell packs of 100 tealights (burning time 3.5 hours per tealight) for £2.

(It's worth keeping a pack of tealights on hand, even if you have other arrangements for emergency lighting)

£land and £world stock cheap candles, from time to time.

They haven't had any in recently, but when they did have them, I bought 4 boxes of 8 x 8" Household Candles.

TBH, it's a case of keeping your eyes peeled for bargains.

Of course, if it's simply lighting (as opposed to making things like fires starters) you want them for, then I'd go for oil lamps instead.

One oil lamp (which will produce as much light as several candles - not to mention a considerable amount of heat) will run for around 40 hours, on 1 Litre of paraffin.

With a bit of searching around, paraffin can be had for around £1-25 to £1-50 per Litre.

Hurricane lamps are also safer, fire risk wise, than candles.

[Deleted User]

vivatifosi wrote: »

Re candles: even with the postage these are pretty cheap tea lights:

Asda are much cheaper.

£2 for 100.

thriftwizard

I've had cause to go hurtling off upcountry today (sadly - would rather have been in the garden) & have seen for myself that lots of floodwater is still lying in places that don't get news coverage. And more to the point, the roads are in just as bad a state as they were on that nightmare Christmas Eve journey to pick up DS1. Potholes you could lose a small car in, crumbling verges & edges, fallen signs. No sign of anyone having been out to mend them. We're talking about a major A road here, in the South, verging on regular commuter/Tory voter territory. It speaks volumes to me that there doesn't seem to be anything left in the kitty for repairs.

ALIBOBSY

nuatha wrote: »

I happened to spend a chunk of yesterday with the local brew-witch and the subject of birch sap came up.
It takes a huge amount of sap to make birch syrup, approx 110 to 1, and it needs a lot of care evaporating off the excess water as the sugars will catch and burn very easily. I've been told that a double boiler or bain marie is worth using when you've reduced the volume by 50%.
The resulting syrup is a dark, rich, spicy caramel.

The reason we were discussing birch sap is that about now is the right time for harvesting it. Her taps on Saturday were dry, so we'll try again on Wednesday, but its generally mid March for collecting the sap. She'll generally get 2.5 litres per tree. Unless its a bumper harvest, most of the sap will go for wine making, but we're hoping to have enough to at least make a small batch of syrup using the double boiler method.

I suspect that the sap will already by rising in Southern counties, if the trees aren't already in bud.

I have previous read up about making birch syrup and I read that the initial stage produces ALOT of steam/water vapour, one guy said it literally stripped the wallpaper off the walls in his kitchen lol. So best to do initial reduction outside over a fire or simular.

Supposedly other trees can be tapped, Sycamore are are type of maple so are supposed to be a good bet.

Ali x

ALIBOBSY

Broomstick wrote: »

The next job that I must, must, must prioritise is to get a back up car key. My spare has vanished. I will be in so much difficulty if I lose the remaining one. Back-up keys are easy to overlook.

B x

If you have one of the new style keys with chips in them-usually at least one key has a remote locking device, then it is almost impossible to get a new key without an old key to sync the new chip too.

We found a good mobile company near us for our new key. We had one remote key and a spare blade type key. OH was getting in the door on a car park when he decided to flick a stone out of the tyre. The remote flicked open an the chip part-a tiny black thing fell out, on a dark stony surface. Dad had to take the spare key up as although the car was open without the chip the car won't start.

We got prices from all over and were quoted often hundreds to sort, but found a mobile guy who came out and did a new blade, plus reprogrammed a new chip-which he then super glued in then old remote. He said he had seen loads of keys broken the same way, or whilst changing batteries the chip gets lost or broken. We paid around £60, but now have the main key and two spares Unfortunately with modern keys its not as simple as a copy of the key used to be and we were told you have to watch when you get a new key as some places will do a straight copy of the blade type keys, but that can cause problems with the car's CPU as it thinks it has been used with a fake key instead of an authorised extra key and can fail to start.


Why do they make it so complicated lol.

Ali x

nuatha

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

I have previous read up about making birch syrup and I read that the initial stage produces ALOT of steam/water vapour, one guy said it literally stripped the wallpaper off the walls in his kitchen lol. So best to do initial reduction outside over a fire or simular.

Supposedly other trees can be tapped, Sycamore are are type of maple so are supposed to be a good bet.

Ali x

To produce 1 litre of syrup, you need to boil off 100+ litres of water. We'll do this in one of the Brewwitch's outbuildings - plenty of ventilation as well as shelter. The big problem is not scorching/burning the sugars.
Linden trees can be used for wine making and presumably syrup.
I haven't come across sycamores being used for wine or syrup, its one that I'll look into. Thank you.

mardatha

Thriftwizard a lot of councils will be waiting for the new financial year starting and then will get some money to fix the roads.