29.01.2025 Practice makes perfect.

 ~o~

  Wednesday 29th 38F/3C [6.30] A misty start is promised. With early showers turning to rain this afternoon.

 Up at 6am after a quiet night. Heart physio after lunch.

 A damp day gives me no excuse to avoid building the remaining IKEA cabinets. Having already moved my larder from the lower drawer of the oven cabinet. The first cabinet still has room to spare. Now the question is what to put in all this new storage space. Though there is some junk under the free end of the working surface. I must be vigilant an disciplined. Stop laughing at the back!

 I also need to have a first wash cycle with some actual laundry. I am at a loss to choose a washing powder. I may have been getting it all wrong so far. As to quantity or quality of powder. I simply continued with my wife's choice but using rather random quantities. I am informed that a plastic measuring device is usually involved. Something like a spoon? This is news to me.

 More research needed. I can't use some famous name powders. Because they ruined my youthful brain function with endless and repetitive advertising. Aimed precisely and deliberately at the severely mentally retarded. Which I hasten to add that I wasn't at the time. I simply refuse to buy anything which carpet bombed me. On a TV which I paid for but never gave permission for advertising. So that infamous battery maker. Will never enjoy a single purchase using their name either.     

 7.30 63F/17C in the room. Stove lit. I have doled out my daily eight tablets into the dispenser. Still pitch black outside. Now what? I must remember to level the washing machine stand/table/platform. Some leverage may be involved. I didn't notice that the two rear feet were tilting the machine forwards until now.

 I'll see if I can correct that with the two front feet. If not, use one of my car jacks? It only needs the weight taken off the feet to screw them up or down. A bottle jack or 2x4? 

 There are no hex nuts involved. So it's adjustment by friction alone. I can just see the headlines: "Old fart found mummified after eight months of being trapped under a washing machine but nobody noticed!" Best avoided.  

 9.00 Second IKEA cabinet completed and hung. In retrospect it could have been taller. Image taken at eye level. Requiring the wide angle distortion be removed with long obsolete software. Which also softens the verticals. The third new cabinet will sit on top of the oven cabinet. Leaving me to find a new home for the mini-oven. 

 The oil filled radiator is now working invisibly in the corner. Behind the washing machine. Which itself is still 10cm or 4" out from the wall. So room to make it less dominant if desired. The oven cabinet is as far back as the electric conduits allow. I am still thinking about extending the end of the wall to reduce the oven cabinet's projection.

 10.00 38F/3.3C. It is quite a pleasant morning out there now. With plenty of blue sky and even the risk of some sunshine.

 11.00 Overcast. Third cabinet completed. It is sitting on its spare shelf. To give its door clearance to open easily. IKEA sells the shelves in packs of two for some reason. I can't push this cabinet as far back as that on the left. 

 The Washing machine is now leveled. With the aid of a 2x4 lever and blocks of wood as a fulcrum. Next I have to think about door knobs or pulls. The soft closure IKEA hinges are drawer slides are amazing. They will silently close a door or cupboard from a long way out. 

 My vintage display cabinets can move a little to the right. Towards the washing machine. Without being in the way of its door opening and laundry activities.  

 15.45 Back from my exercise class. I was feeling good and had no problem completing the exercises. Except for balance and flexibility. Both remain poor. I looked in on the Morris Minor specialist to ask what might be wrong with the car. The engine was dying repeatedly followed by explosions in the exhaust. Fortunately it sorted itself out and kept going until I reached the class.

 I ran my first load of laundry in the new washing machine. The towels, Cotton at 60C and 1600rpm. The machine is pleasantly quiet compared to the top loader. The 1600 spin impressively fast. The towels came out creased but still slightly damp. Ready for hanging on the clothes airer upstairs.

 Dinner was a repeat of yesterday's. Chicken, sausage and mushrooms.  

 

  ~o~