“Gut with fut”
November 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
We’re back from our short holiday in the Lake District. Cumbria was a welcoming change to the gales and the rain of late. The cottage we rented was as close to the beach as you could possibly get. And the beach was truly wonderful: during low tide it was maybe a kilometer wide. It was dog friendly and Jingles had a great time running around and playing with other dogs.
We had good weather all week: sunny, fresh, dry, all in all very pleasant. Besides daily walks on the beach, we did a couple of long walks in the Cumbrian country side which is less rugged than Skye’s and is scattered with lovely little villages.
Besides the difference in country side we also noted a difference in accent and sometimes found the Cumbrians quite difficult to understand. While Claire did a little shopping for dinner, I was waiting outside with Jingles. A man walked up to the shop entrance, nodded and said to me “Eh is eh rue zee ozz frem nozzam rotzzam, innit?”. For a second I was tempted to say “Excuse me?” but I just nodded and said “Yes, it is.”, which was enough to avoid further challenges. That evening, triggered by my very brief conversation and the slogan used in the commercials of the Cooperative (”Good with food”), we concluded that the enormous array of accents in the UK is still a major challenge.
Another amazing discovery we did is that on one of our walks we tried to park our car by the side of the road only to find that you had to pay for parking. And not just a symbolic payment but no less than £3.50 for 2 hours! That rate would not look bad in downtown Amsterdam. An outrage, compared to Skye!
Viva Screwfix!
November 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
Due to a misunderstanding I ordered an electric planer from Screwfix twice. So this morning I made call to their Customer Service department to arrange for the return of one of them. I must say, a truly amazing experience.
You can book a date with them, a carrier will come to your house to pick the item up and no questions asked. You don’t have to write an address label and you don’t even have to go to the post office for the return!!!
I say “Viva Screwfix”, a great Internet shopping experience!!!!!!!
Was it a Mink?
November 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
We heard today that a lot of people in the area have lost chicken and not to foxes but probably to minks. I have never seen a Mink but they appear to be quite cheeky, even doing their chicken attacks at broad daylight!!
Crunching the fuel bill
November 11, 2008 | 1 Comment |
We got our second stove fitted today. Hurray!! Things appeared to go completely wrong at first as the glass of stove door was smashed and the delivered stand consisted of two right legs, in stead of a left and a right one. But nothing a quick phone call to the head office couldn’t fix.
At about lunch time all was prepped for making the hole in the roof… and then the heavens opened and the downpour started… typical… As one of the fitters said: “A bad day to make holes in roofs…”. Indeed, a true statement! I felt sorry for the guy on the roof. He definitely had his share of Skye weather today!
At about 3pm all was closed again: flue fitted, slates back in place and the roof was no longer leaking. And then you really want to try it out but… the flu units are sealed with a special type of cement (fire proof cement) and you can’t really fire up the stove unless stove and flue are completely clean, otherwise any cement remains would burn into the flue or stove surface. And washing cement off is a pain. You think it’s clean but once dried, there’s that grey film again. However, steady cleaning during the evening and all cement was finally removed, so I fired it up a couple of minutes ago. It works great! Money well spent! We’re totally ready for winter…
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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