Filling up
May 29, 2008 | 2 Comments |
After filling up the car with diesel I had to go home and lie down for a while. What a staggering amount of money! Where is this going? The UK is not the only country with sky high fuel prices. In Holland it is even worse and the Dutch are fed up! There’s this site http://www.kwartjevankokterug.nu (it’s in Dutch but I’ll translate the essentials in English). The name of the site relates to the rocketing fuel prices and takes action against an extra taxation measure on fuel implemented by Wim Kok, a former left winged Dutch Prime Minister. It was said to be a temporary measure, but oh wonder… it never went away.
The website calls the Dutch people to action! First Mr. Kok’s temporary taxation has to go!!
Some staggering figures:
Daily excise income on fuel in Holland: 23 million euro’s
Daily income from Mr. Kok’s temporary taxation: 2 million euro’s
Income on the temporary taxation until today: 17 billion euro’s
Percentage of fuel price which is taxation: 62%
I don’t know about the situation in the UK, but it’s probably not any better. Good to see that the Dutch are fed up and doing something. I will be watching that site closely…
It had to end
May 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
Today we had our first drop of rain after - to be honest I lost track - but at least four continuous weeks of nice, sunny weather. Amazing! It wasn’t a lot of rain just a steady drizzle. Also back is the midge. When there’s no wind, you better go inside. I find them far more annoying than last year. So, I’m looking forward to tomorrow which will give us steady breeze with gusts up to 26mph.
The shed is coming on nicely. Check out the picture (a bit gloomy, but I had to wait for the midges to go away as they were really bad tonight). There’s now a couple of rows of blocks on all walls and although not as perfect as a seasoned brick layer would do it, I’m really pleased with the result so far. I think the 6” blocks make it more difficult compared to the 4” blocks. Each block is really heavy and if the mortar is too sloppy the block will push away all mortar and it will make a level fit a true challenge.
Today I went to Portree to collect the windows which will go in with the next couple of rows. The ease at which they will fit will be the test of my skills as a block layer…
The Faeries or…
May 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
I think it’s for real. We either have the Faeries to thank for the improved broadband speed or (possibly) those cabling guys - who seem to have put fiber optic cables in the ground - are responsible. Speeds still fluctuate: I’ve seen it range from 1700bps to well over 2000bps. But, I’m happy!
Solar panels or… ?
May 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
I’m getting seconds thoughts about the warm water system of our house. Solar panels are getting cheaper and oil is getting more expensive. It’s a tough nut to crack. On the one hand we will have to replace a fairly new infrastructure (Megaflow hot water tank) and buy and install new components for the solar energy based system.
I will get my spreadsheet out one of these days and do a “what-if” analysis to see at what price level the oil has to come to make the installation really a worthy investment…
Slab is in
May 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
Like a Bedouin I went out to take some pictures of the progress of the shed for the blog. Why a Bedouin you might wonder? Well, the midges have found their way to Skye again. It’s truly awful!! Massive clouds of the little buggers around…
The shed has its slab. We completed that yesterday. It was hard work. We had to do the slab in two stages as I had not ordered enough sand to mix all the concrete (stupid). So the first layer was put in a week ago and now the second was poured. Well, poured was not the right word. The first layer sucked all the water out of the concrete we poured over it, making it very difficult to work with. As it was a warm day, water evaporated from the newly poured mix as well…
We solved this by hosing the first layer vigorously with water, which helped a lot. Also, towards the end when we had to even out the second pour, there was a midge attack which made work difficult, to say the least. Anyway, it’s done now and we’re pretty pleased with the result. The blue stuff you see is the damp proof membrane which sits under the slab to prevent damp rising.
Today I did some corner block work which I will continue tomorrow. Weather is still very good so I take every opportunity to have a go.
Kitchen by Magnet
May 18, 2008 | 2 Comments |
As you can read from our house build blog our kitchen was supplied and installed by Magnet, the Inverness branch to be precise. After about a year of use we noticed one of the cupboard doors hanging all crooked. Upon inspection we found out that the installing joiner had had so many tries at finding the right hole to fit the door, that the screws that hold the hinges were basically hanging loose. Also, the installer had used the wrong screws.
Now, why didn’t you find that earlier on, you might ask? Well, simple. It’s quite a big kitchen with loads of storage space and we only started using this particular cupboard for the past two months and the flimsy installation just escaped our attention.
We reported the flimsy fitting to the Inverness branch of Magnet (really, a monkey would have done a better job here) and we were told that the warranty on the installation and materials had expired. They sent out an inspector a couple of months back but that was it. No more replies from Magnet.
Our conclusion: We bought our last kitchen from Magnet and we advise anybody doing business with them to stay well clear of their installation service (that is, for the Inverness branch). You pay premium money for their installation service while our results are really quite poor. They not only installed that door completely wrong, they also messed up the coving behind the extractor fan and drilled through a couple shelves while installing cupboard lights. After seeing them live in action (a couple of bored kids just from school) it’s a miracle they even got the kitchen in.
Anyway, I feel much better now and will fix that crooked door myself and Magnet is in my “Not-To-Be Used-In-The-Future-Suppliers” binder…
Fish on the menu
May 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
Tonight we had dinner at the Loch Bay Restaurant in Stein. It’s a seafood restaurant. We had a reservation at 6:15pm and went a little early to have a quick pint at the Stein Inn. Arriving there we were asked to wait outside as an incident had happened and the ambulance was on its way. Indeed, after 10 minutes the ambulance arrived on scene. We could not really see what had happened and walked over to the Loch Bay Restaurant. To cut a long evening short we had a marvelous dinner. There was Loch Dunvegan crab as a starter (delicious) and a mix of main courses. Loch Bay King Prawns grilled in garlic butter, sauteed scallops and lemon sole. All accompanied with a really good Chilean white wine.
Our experience: a very good restaurant, fantastic food, great service, reasonable prices, lovely location… definitely worth a visit!
We’ve been upgraded…
May 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
While downloading an upgrade for the SKINIDIN.COM site I noticed a vast improvement in the download speed. In stead of the measly 50Kb we normally have, it was now pumping away at speeds well over 200Kb. I decided to check on the router status page and indeed, we now have a download line speed of a little over 200Kb… Hurray!!
My guess is that it had to do with the rewiring work that was carried out over the past days. I think I have to lie down for a while. I was just adjusted to that slow poke speed and now we’re all 21st century here on Skye. Next thing we might have traffic jams here as well… No, I’m being sarcastic. I’m really happy. It’s a big improvement!
Handsome lad…
May 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
We’ve had the nicest weather you can imagine. And on one of those days Jingles decided to strike a stunning pose and Claire was ready with her cam to capture the moment. What a handsome boy!!
He has now lost all his puppy teeth which have been replaced by proper teeth: sparkling white and of impressive size! Slowly but surely he’s losing his puppy features. He still loves to cuddle up on our laps though. Ouch! A 20 kilo dog jumping on your lap. He’s really a big softie…
Saving private Blackface
May 12, 2008 | 1 Comment |
Today we went up the road to test the equipment in our holiday cottage. While going up there we saw a tiny, tiny black faced lamb lying in the ditch next to the access road. It got stuck into some old fencing materials, weed and twigs and it was screaming like there was no tomorrow. It’s mum was standing next to it but other than bleating back a bit, she did not do too much…
I decided to jump in the ditch and free the little screamer. It felt very fragile and I could feel its little heart pounding away as I untangled it from its uncomfortable position. When it was free it walked about for a bit and stared at me with a fuzzy look. Then it ran off to its mum with weird, funny jumps…
Later that day we saw it basking in the evening sun, looking quite content.
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Latest music...
Hair (1968, Original Broadway recording). Some naughty lyrics for that time!!
An Rathad a Bhatarsaigh, by the Vatersay Boys