When not attending to garden tasks what other things have filled your day?

I was surprised, back in the late sixties, how small was HMS Victory.
It was a disappointment in some ways, that there didn't seem to be enough cleaning going on.
But I learned a few things from the brochure supplied. In the days before mechanisation, "setting sail" could be a major task.
If they had four anchors down, it would take 24 hours to wind them all up by hand. Quite often one down would be enough, so if they were in a hurry, they'd just let it go and when they came back they'd "fish for it."

 

https://www.nps.gov/bost/learn/historyculture/ussconst.htm

We have The USS Constitution docked in Boston Harbor and it's the oldest still active War Ship in the World. Built in 1797 It is nicknamed " Old Ironsides ".

 

I have seen the beautiful Queen Mary docked in Long Beach California. It’s aMAZing..

 

Also been on the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier 1960’s, which is a small floating city with over 2500 p 500- sailors and personnel aboard.
I got lost like being standard on a desert island.


Also seen the Pearl Harbor memorial in Hawaii from WWll.

 

About thirty years ago I toured Brunnel's S.S. Great Britain, in Bristol

and decades ago, The Cutty Sark before the fire.

 

From Thursday, I've been trying to arrange a service for my wife's stair lift.
The supplier wouldn't answer the phone, two e-mails went unanswered, two were returned as the addresses of the people were no longer active and the link on their website didn't work. I finally got through this morning after hanging on for over 20 minutes having to suffer the recorded voice of a woman telling me how wonderful and caring they were, when the opposite is the truth.
I didn't take it out on the guy who answered, as it wasn't his fault. But I let him know how abysmal I thought their communication facilities. Anyway, it's sorted, they will let me know when they can do it, it'll probably be in a week.
We've no concerns as the lift has worked perfectly several times a day since we've had it. So it should at £4.5k. But it's a year old and it's due a free first service. I negotiated a three-year warranty when I bought it.

Contrast this with Sharp/Ninja. I had a question about our new Airfryer, well not new, we'd had it over a year and only used it for the first time last week. So I sent them an e-mail on Sunday.
When I opened my laptop on Monday morning, there was already an e-mail from them offering some advice.

 

It's so very frustrating at times having to attempt such communications.........in fact I wouldn't be at all surprised if it put some folk of completely. It's so time consuming.

Hats off to to Sharp/ Ninja. Sometimes the good guys go unnoticed as it seems more of a norm to highlight the badies.

 

I told the guy at the stair lift company that a neighbour had asked me about our stair lift as she needed to get one for her mother. But although I think the stair lift was excellent, I wouldn't recommend them to anyone given the quality of their service.

 

Just an update on the latest batch of hats for charity, haven't had much time lately but as the nights draw in I will.

 

Oreti… your hats are so clever , charming and all for a good cause. If I had to choose just one I’m afraid I would want them all. Just beautiful hand crafted work. So clever … I luv them all.

 

Aww thanks Pac , I must come clean though and remind you that they are only mini hats to don the tops of bottles. I'm not clever enough to increase the patterns so as to make human head sized ones..

 

We went for a wander around the preliminary edge of Southampton Boat Show yesterday......there is a view point that gives you a free view We are not yachty people so not interested enough to pay the high entrance fees.

Not one of my pic obviously.

Today I'm off with some friends to the Cinema to see Downton Abbey The Grand Finale.

 

Yachts have always fascinated me.
"If ever I won the lottery," not likely as I never by a ticket.

But this is what I'd like. None of that clinging onto a double helm at the back of the boat, when you can have central cockpit from where you can reach all the sheets necessary to steer, you are out of the sun and if it rains you've windscreen wipers.With bow and stern thrusters in a harbour you can do a 360 degree turn in its own length. Two people can handle it if it's short rigged.

 

I have this Little NAD tuner/amp in my "office" (our 8ft x 6ft box bedroom)



It sits in this wall unit I built, (which has "grown like Topsy" over the years) with two bookshelf speakers. The Leak tuner/amp in the photo has been relegated to a "spare" (with two other tuner/amps).



There's very little spare room.
There's this unit I built for my wife's decoupage stuff.



and a big cupboard with on top, the little TV I bought her when she was sixteen weeks in hospital, last year, for which we don't have a lot of use now.




I don't use the radio much, sometimes if I'm working on something on my bench. But the Fm reception isn't very good.

So I bought an adapter, for five quid, to plug in one of my iPods, so I can now choose from a couple of thousand mp3s, if I'm ever up there working.