Weekly update – pardon?

I have gone through a brief, but utterly miserable time of having to say “pardon” all the time.  That, plus preparing for winter and the usual perplexing delights of family life keep me enjoying every day and seeing the funny side in these things.

Pardon

As you might have already seen in the previous post, I have resorted to some ear drops in order to shift some wax from my ears.  Trouble is, the drops seem to swell the wax and this makes the problem even worse.  The drops, by the way, were some fancy pants pricey sodium bicarbonate from the pharmacy and these drops didn’t seem to work at all, other than make things worse.  So then I tried good, old fashioned olive oil and this worked a treat.

Back to the issue of blocked ears, problems were getting worse when a meeting with an accountant was approaching where he forewarned me that he had lost his voice and was a bit croaky, to say the least.  So the thought of my hearing impairment coupled with his lack of voice made me wonder how we would communicate.

It had the makings of a hilarious meeting where all kinds of things could be unwittingly agreed because we had misunderstood each other.  Pictures of the Two Ronnies* and one of their ridiculous sketches came to mind and all kinds of miscommunication taking place.  In the end, the accountant’s voice had improved and was more gravelly, almost film star territory.  My hearing had improved (just a little more to come out of one ear and then I’m done for the next five years).  At least, I consoled myself, I have enjoyed a slightly easier-on-the-ears sermon at church….

Preparing for winter

With the constant news about increasing energy costs being constantly in the news and my desire for a nice, toasty warm house, we have decided to take some steps to improve things here in the Quirky Museum.  Truth is, this should have been done many, many years ago.

The Quirky Museum’s weakness is undoubtedly the single glazed windows at the front of the house.  This is the “new” extension and is the Victorian part.  The windows themselves, perhaps 150 years old, are in surprisingly good condition but with paper thin glass, meaning the thermal properties aren’t really up to modern standards.

In fact, they’re dreadful.  The main issue is the glass itself, much of it being old glass which has the delightful quality of distortions, imperfections and even a few little bubbles.  There’s no way these would pass any quality control standards with modern glass but it has to be said, there is a certain charm to it.  Add to the “charm” the loss of so much heat through the windows and the odd draught at the side, they are a bit of a disaster from a thermally efficiency point of view.

We decided to try some 4mm acrylic sheets on a window upstairs for a couple of weeks.  As that seemed to go well and there wasn’t any condensation in the mornings, we have taken the plunge and bought the acrylic sheets for the rest of the windows.  They attach, very cleverly, with magnetic strips around the edge and are finished off with a clean white trim.

As with all things here in the Quirky Museum, any job is a major undertaking.  The downstairs windows – floor to ceiling height – needed painting on the inside (it was one of those tedious jobs I was going to get around to one day).  Lots of scraping, sanding and cleaning before they could be painted.  “And what paint did you use?” I hear you ask…. we discovered Zinsser.  Not cheap but extremely cost effective.

Continued dashing around

I have blogged before about yearning to be at home a bit more than we are.  It is a question of finding the right balance between being settled, without being bored.

There has been regular drives down the M1, around the M25, along the M4 and finally the last leg of the M5 to visit my mother, who lives in Weston-super-Mare.  Incidentally, she lives quite close to the See Monster (photo at the top).  This former oil rig has been plonked into the open air swimming pool which has been abandoned by the blummin Council.  As you can see the oil rig has been turned into a kind of sculpture which has some kind of environmental message.  I’m just not convinced by this and definitely question if exhibits like this come anywhere near the 1951 feel-good Festival of Britain.

We have also been in Exeter as my daughter and her hubby have bought a very tired house which needs a lick of paint (plus rewiring, new plumbing, new heating, new kitchen, new bathroom, new….. you get the message).  Doing my little bit in the house over three days has been like a dream-come-true.

I have also been feeling a little unwell, feeling very achey as if I was on the edge of going down with something.  Turns out another infection and yet more antibiotics.

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*The Two Ronnies, masters of miscommunication.  Four candles, fork handles….