Flying solo

NewLeaf_2

Good Morning Robin, Hope you start feeling better soon. After reading what the others have written I sense that your gut may be right. Probably best to find someone else x

bast

I think it is safe to say Robin you are no absolutely no-ones fool.... x:)

*Robin*

bast wrote: »

I think it is safe to say Robin you are no absolutely no-ones fool....

Well, thanks for giving me a chuckle, Bast, especially at the ending of that saying:

I am no one's fool but my own..

That's definitely true at times.

Hello HAW and NewLeaf, thanks to you both for dropping in. Sorry I don't always mention everyone who is kind enough to comment, but please know that I do really appreciate the encouragement you all provide. :T

Should have gone out today - promised CD a run on the b e a c h - but just couldn't find the energy.
Shame as it's a lovely day; chilly from all the snow on the tops, but sunny and still.

Not heard a peep from Probate Chap (but haven't sent him copies of my documents - don't intend to).

Still looking at PPI stuff; it's m'justification for postponing a trip to Consumer-World another day (must go tomorrow as have run out of bread). Would be good to get another envelope in the post and draw a line through that item on m' To Do List..
<sigh Ought to 'disconnect' and get on with it really..>

bast

ahhhh but that Robin is true of us all... !!! :rotfl:x

dorothy52

Hi Robin - you sound tired today, lovey, hope you feel better tomorrow, the walk on the beach with CD sounds lovely, hope you manage it. I smiled at your musing about technology and the young - are we destined to be technophobes forever do you think? For all our life experience, wisdom and knowledge the young seem to make us feel so thick!! I feel lucky to have lived in the computer age, however I am relieved that it became so prevalent in the second half of my life - I wouldn't have missed growing up in the carefree and austere sixties for the world - oh the fun we had with a sixpenny bag of marbles and the rag doll my granny knitted for me whom I called Susan and still remember with love to this day.

*Robin*

Hello Diary and dear MSE Friends, :hello:

Nearly had a disaster last night; of the type that could have led to me vanishing from here with no explanation:
Managed to get a log jammed in the mouth of the stove; it almost went in then stuck, wouldn't drop and I couldn't lift it back out (very basic stove - have to hang onto the cast iron lid by it's wobbly tool with my other hand). Meanwhile fire burst up around said log making it bluddy hard to grab even once I'd belted outside to drop the lid safely! ..Gave the log a good yank, ignoring fire licking at m'fingers, and the whole stove lifted off it's base! :eek: Had to stand on the front feet and grip stove with m'knees before having another go - meanwhile tongues of flame shot past the log, seeking my face (thank goodness hair was tied back or I'd be toast now!).

The log came free, so ignoring smoldering trousers I charged outside to dump it - already burning - into Daft Dogs' water bucket. Then grabbed the lid [harder than it sounds when the heavy, still-hot thing was flat on the floor] and got it back into place, confining the flames which were over a metre high by then.

Phew. Yesterday must have been a lucky day for me! And a lesson, of course. A donation in grateful thanks for my survival - unscathed, bar a kinked neck from trying to keep m'face out of the fire - will soon be heading towards a favourite charity, also some pocket-money for my dear kids who could have been going through a very traumatic day today if the universe had been against me last night! (No, am not going to tell them what happened - DS3 worries enough about Life as it is).

Well, so it goes. The scalded trousers will do for gardening, bolting down the stove is on my Get Someone Else To Do List, and I'll buy some more smaller logs from the other woodman who still has a better stock (a builder's sack-full costs a tenner and will last until Spring) .

Before all that happened, the electricity bill arrived; it was e-nor-mous! :eek:
:think: The pump for the well uses a fair bit of power but that's unavoidable. Bar lights, tv, lappy, toaster and kettle, the main thing that drinks power is my oven, which I use a lot.
However cooking for one doesn't require a family-sized oven - I have an alternative as the microwave also functions as a convection oven. Have not used it as such before, but last night it cooked my dinner faster than the big one would have done - and the power didn't trip once (to limit the bill PC and I had a lower rated fuse put in, which means that main oven + pump + kettle overload the system. This works very well actually, though must add that Spanish electric supplies don't work the same way as in the UK - the cut-out feature [apparently] stops anyone getting a fatal electric shock, or the possibility that a malfunctioning fridge or washer will over-heat and catch fire).
Anyway, hopefully using the microwave as an oven will significantly reduce my next bill. (If there's enough money left after PC's DDuties and all other costs/debts have been paid, am thinking some solar panels would be a very good investment - morally as well as financially, given the climate here).

Still haven't done the PPI, but some other post is ready to go, including a couple of cheques that had been lost in the 'not yet sorted out' paperwork mountain. <sigh>

But have failed to go out yet again today; it is grey, windy and bitterly cold. Daft Dogs had a quick look outside then went straight back to bed this morning. Don't blame them - Sensible Dogs, lol. Beach will be deserted; with high surf and sand scouring the air..

dorothy52 wrote: »

I smiled at your musing about technology and the young - are we destined to be technophobes forever do you think? For all our life experience, wisdom and knowledge the young seem to make us feel so thick!! I feel lucky to have lived in the computer age, however I am relieved that it became so prevalent in the second half of my life - I wouldn't have missed growing up in the carefree and austere sixties for the world - oh the fun we had with a sixpenny bag of marbles and the rag doll my granny knitted for me whom I called Susan and still remember with love to this day.

Oh Dot, you take me back in time.. Yes I too am glad to have grown up in more care-free days, when our elders still had the war-time attitude of make do and mend, and solve your own problems as you go.. Our parents taught us to use our initiative and intelligence - if some education seeped in along the way that was fine, but not essential in order to get on in life.

Today, how many seven and eight-year-olds would be permitted to leave home after breakfast with a packed lunch and the intention of 'sailing' along the river to the next villages in a tin bath, on the promise that we'd be home by sun-set?
..Spent many a happy day far out of adult gaze doing things like that, with my best mate and our brothers. Our explorations were cut short not by any parental prohibition but by the realisation that it took a lot of effort towing our boat ten miles up-stream to get home again; through muddy bullock-filled fields, past thickets of bull-rushes, and then carrying it back up the hill at the end!
If we wanted a go cart, we made one. When it got smashed up because we thought shoe-leather and young legs would provide adequate braking power, we learned - and fixed it (after the driver's tears had been dried off, sticking-plasters applied to wounds etc). Many a classic Silver-Cross pram met it's end in such ventures!

..Ahh, happy days.

HeadAboveWater

OMG :eek::eek: glad you're ok Robin! But what a scare!! Your instincts (and adrenalin!) jumped in right and quick as things could've turned out a lot worse

missrlr

Flipping heck! You know how to give yourself a scare. My heart rate jumped just reading that !
Glad you ok and be careful with remaining log supply!

bast

omg glad you are okay Robin please be careful... My husband tripped and fell onto the wood burning stove he still has the scars very nasty.... x:o

dorothy52

OMG Robin, you gave me such a scare then! Very sensible idea re smaller logs. Oh how you took my back in time just now. We were so bl00dy poor but the adventures we had. We used to make ourselves some bread and marge, and an old lemonade bottle of water then at first light my sister and I would be off to a park several miles away and not come back until tea time. I remember once it poured down with rain and all the sensible kids and the ones with parents with them were in the shelter and we thought it was great cos we had all the swings to ourselves! The sun came out again and dried our sodden clothes and we were none the worse for it. Our poverty stricken upbringing made us so strong and resourceful, yet we seem not to have passed those life skills to our young, it's such a shame, isn't it? I am determined that my DGD will learn to bake and sew by my side, and basic cooking of course, I anticipate many a strange concoction emerging from my oven in years to come.............