14.12.2024 All change!

 ~o~

  Saturday 14th 36F/2C. Overcast, rain and wind.

 Up at 7am after drifting. Another quiet night. Woke at 4am.

 After deciding which kitchen whiteware I like I am struggling to find the oven in stock anywhere. The mini oven is already hopeless. The washing machine isn't so desperate but ought to be replaced soon. The top loader in the bathroom stinks. As do the clothes coming out of it.

 11.45. Drizzling. I have ordered an oven and a washing machine. From a nearby dealer. One of a nationwide chain. Delivery expected next Wednesday. The oven is easy. Plug and play. If you ignore the naked exterior. It can go on top of the recycling cupboard. Though I still need to find a smart box to house it. IKEA? No. I'll keep looking for a pine storage solution in a charity shop. That would make a better match with the cupboard than white, plastic laminated chipboard.

I need an electrician and a plumber to have the washing machine in the kitchen. I bought a riser base for the washing machine. 30cm gain in height brings the door up to slightly above praying mode. At least I have finally done something. I have been pondering a serious upgrade for years. My late wife would not accept any change. 

 Now I have to make some brave new decisions on kitchen layout. No real lack of room. Just a lack of proper organization. The shoe storage towers can now go elsewhere. Leaving the alcove free to house the ugly pine dresser. Or just the base? Sans shelving? Or not  at all? It presently only holds a collection of drinking glasses. Which were never used. Except on a few, very rare occasions. 

 My problem is, as always, an excess of stuff. All of which needs to be found a new home. The shoe towers have gone under the stairs in the living room. The bags of fine sand for rendering the living room wall? No idea. The scruffy dresser base could go under the TV in the living room. Its badly finger-marked, naked pine seriously needs a coat or three of paint. I could find something smarter in many charity shops. The TV belongs up on the wall. Losing furniture means sorting and hiding more stuff. It's all Catch 22!

 The recycled hospital trolley in the far left corner has to go. It doesn't have a middle shelf. So it is mostly supporting damp air. The junk on the lower shelf does not belong anywhere. Not where there is any pretense at being a proper kitchen. The trolley projects into the intended washing machine space. I do not want the washing machine under the working surface. My knees couldn't stand the constant grovelling. Which leaves space for shelving or neatly stacked storage tubs under the working surface beyond the sink. The worktop is currently a repository for dirty dishes.

 I could take down the shelves currently housing the tinned larder. Storage for the .gov recommendation to survive a crisis. That could go out of sight under the worktop. Then it wouldn't be easily read to see what was missing or in need of a top up. Let's not try that.

 15.30 The dresser has been emptied and the shelves cleared. A square storage tub has been completely filled with the drinking glasses. The trolley cleared and dragged into the hall for disposal elsewhere. Possibly back to the greenhouse. It is the right height for a workbench. The dresser has been moved to the right and backed into the alcove. 

 Plenty of space for the washing machine now. The paint, building materials and rendering tools need a new home. Unless they can be hidden at the back without becoming inaccessible. I am hot and tired now. So need a rest.

 Dinner was sardines on toast with tomatoes. I had to do a lot of tidying before I could even reach the work surface. The horrible image at the top is when the mess was at its worst. I am sorting everything into storage tubs. Which will go under the far end of the work surface. The low, white "table" at centre is the platform for the washing machine. I considered rotating the machine to fit at the end of the work surface. This would mean shortening the work top by several centimeters. Not a major problem but the ashing machine would be tight against the end wall.

 The far end wall needs to be insulated and covered in plasterboard. I had previously boarded it with recycled, vintage pine. Up to the yellow wallpaper level. After two decades the wood was riddled with woodworm. So it all had to be taken down. Moving the pine dresser has exposed the ugliness once safely hidden. 

 9.00 Now I have to do a load of washing up! Half an hour's worth.

 

  ~o~

 

13.12.2024 Mink ear warmers?

 ~o~

 Friday 13th 36F/2C [7.30] Cold and cloudy. It won't reach 3C/37F today. As temperatures slowly fall to a slight overnight frost tonight. Becoming breezy from around the south.

 Up at 6.20 after a very quiet night. A slightly chilly 62F/17C in the room. I had better light the stove.

 10.00 I shall visit the lady in the village this morning. We haven't met for some time.

 12.15 Returned from my visit. Just chatting on everything under the sun. A brief glimpse of the sun as an opening formed in the clouds. The gap is closing as it is heading northwards. So is unlikely to last.

 The nurse at the city hospital, heart department rang to check on my progress. I was happy to say I am in a much better situation than before. Sleeping much better recently, feeling fit and active. She was happy to hear that my own doctor is getting involved in prescribing suitable medicines and doses.

 16.30 I have returned from a trip into the city to window shop for white goods. So I have narrowed down my choices except for the fridge/freezer. I like the stainless steel trim on an AEG fan assisted cooker. Heavily discounted to half the price and very well reviewed by customers. Not available for a couple of weeks for online sales. I'll need help getting these heavy items indoors.

 A Miele washing machine is heavily discounted and has a white door surround. It too is well reviewed. All white will fit better in my scruffy period kitchen. Without robbing it of light. I'll get a commercial dais for it to stand on. To raise the door to a more comfortable level. 

 The in-building oven can go on top of my antique pine, recycling cupboard. Housed in a commercial "wooden" box. This will bring it up to eye level and right opposite the working surface, food preparation area. My mini oven is sitting there and getting tired and not browning food properly.

 I also bought the discounted 500ml Thermos. Which I had found online in a camping & clothing shop. Now I can take black coffee [?] on my winter rides. Though I may prefer white coffee. Half milk to make it cooler. So I won't have to wait for ages before being able to drink it.

 There was heavy traffic on the main roads going both ways. It was dark on the way back. I stopped short behind a traffic queue. To let a young lady pull out in her Porsche SUV. She was wearing mink ear warmers!

 Dinner was sausage, tweggs and chips. Unhealthy? I don't know. I have stopped using the seed oil and now use butter for frying. I ate an apple afterwards for pudding. To avoid drinking coffee.

 

  ~o~

12.12.2024 Thermos.©

 ~o~

  Thursday 12th 36F/2C [6.30] Another long, grey, cold but still day is forecast. Hovering around 2-3C all day. A light, mostly northerly breeze.

 Up at 6am after a mixed night. I was already wide awake before deciding to get up. 64F/18c in the room.

  My shiny, new, light level programmer on the aquarium is working. Currently at moonlight level until 7am. We'll see how the next stage looks in a little while. No change. Grr. Usually, I only have two table lamps lit. So they don't overpower what is happening inside the tank. 

 It is probably time for another ride. I just need to dress warmly enough to be comfortable. My heavy Norwegian jumper was perfect last time under my lined, high-vis jacket. I took alternative clothing in the panniers but never needed it. Deciding where to go is always the most difficult hurdle. I tend to rotate around familiar charity shops. Which are strung out along equally familiar minor roads and country lanes. Variations are always much further afield. 

 Taking the wholemeal, bread rolls for lunch should be a good idea. I have no idea why I don't always take them. To avoid missing a meal when I need the energy and comfort they provide. Honey was a bit of a disaster. I ended up with a poly bag full of honey and none on the rolls. So now I take my mature cheddar on the bases of the rolls. With Italian raspberry jam on the tops. The jam doesn't migrate like the honey. 

 Thanks to the rolls I didn't need to eat any sub-micro, Corny muesli bars last time. Nor any of the small cartons of organic apple juice. It makes me shiver just thinking about them when it is cold. What I really should take is a warm drink. Somehow I have lost the stainless steel thermos flask. Which was always in the car when my wife and I went out. A break to enjoy a Danish pastry [Spandauer med creme] and tea being essential part of any trip. 

 How difficult can it be to find a new flask? Prices for stainless steel range from £20 equivalent upwards at sports/cycling outlets. My china mugs at home hold 200ml. It would be a very long ride where I needed more than two whole mugs worth. Besides the screw-on cap is usually a much smaller cup. Even half a liter [500ml] capacity would be enough for one day. The Thermos range of stainless steel flasks are well reviewed for holding liquids warm. For a whole day if needed. Which means a long wait before I can drink the coffee.

 Should I make finding a flask the goal for today's ride? Odense? 30km. 60km round trip? I am bound to wander on detours. Or I ride 10km to a local shopping village and buy a Thermos there. A more sensible distance on a cold grey day. If they don't have anything I like in stock then I can ride on to Fåborg on the south coast. The same distance as Odense. Or I ride to Assens. Nearer, but only one outlet which stocks Thermos. 

 I found the two, odd, stainless steel thermos flask[s] under the sink. One had lost its stopper. The other has lost its cup. So never the twain shall meet.

 I just heard a noise and went to look outside. Nothing visible. Perhaps it is the builders' activities next door? Almost like a muffled knocking on the door. They may be demolishing something. Or loading a trailer. I am no longer used to hearing noises nearby after long absences of near neighbours. 

 9.30. It is still grey, cold and miserable. I don't even want to go for a walk! Going in the car is cheating! Lazy git mode! I'll ride to the shopping village. There are other things to buy there. If I put my warm clothing on first I'll be toasty bu the time I leave. I haven't lit the stove.

 12.15 Now I have lit the stove. Returned from a 24km ride. No Thermos in stock. Bought some groceries and rode back again. It was cold. My hands weren't warm enough on the way there. Despite wearing doubled gloves. No problem coming back in only the outer gloves. Increased circulation from the exercise? Who knows?

 17.30 It has only reached 65F/18C in the room. The outside temperature of 2C hasn't changed all day. I have just spent an hour chatting on the phone with the lady in the village. Followed by nearly an hour on WApp. We share a similarly strange sense of humour. 

 I will probably have to call yesterday a scrambled egg on toast day. Even if I didn't remember to make the toast! 🙄 So I have to make something "real" tonight. What about sausage curry? OMG! It's a thing! 😂

 Dinner was sausage and mushroom curry. Lots of it. A cup of the new Basmati, white rice. A hole jar of Ben's Medium Curry sauce.

 

  ~o~