Friday 26 September 2008
Thursday 25 September 2008
Spiffy
My wall is no longer adorned by nasty brown patches. No! For these patches have now been covered up by not-quite-matching but still really quite similar squares of brighter, whiter wallpaper.
I'm not very good at wallpapering, but happily it seems that modern technology allows any fool with a paste brush to slather paste all over the wall, shove some paper in roughly the right place, and achieve a pleasing result. With the result that I am indeed pleased.
Carpet tiles next. Wa ha ha hah. :)
I'm not very good at wallpapering, but happily it seems that modern technology allows any fool with a paste brush to slather paste all over the wall, shove some paper in roughly the right place, and achieve a pleasing result. With the result that I am indeed pleased.
Carpet tiles next. Wa ha ha hah. :)
Wednesday 24 September 2008
Dirty Ant
Eururrrrgh!!
Well, it's all happening. I decided this afternoon that it was time to get rid of my old bed. It has been providing good service for ten years or so (and wasn't even brand new then!) but just recently it has been lumpy and bumpy, the matress going all weird and poking my bottom with its springs in protest. But today is the end. It is all part of the plan. Old broken-down double bed leaves, lovely carpet tiles go down, new box-fresh freshly assembled single bed is replaced on top. All is well.
At least the first part of that is out of the way. But here's the thing, if you ever get a chance to touch an old bed, don't. It really is very disgusting. I mean, my bed was fine for the purposes of laying down on, but once you start moving and lifting its parts, nothing but filth and grossness is found. Dust, fluff, crumbs, long-lost pairs of socks, newspapers, magazines, pens, floppy discs.. and more dust. And more fluff. And loads and loads of general 'ick'.
Unpleasant, yes indeed. Having moved the bed I notice that my wallpaper has nasty stains on it from where my body (and mostly my greasy head) has been near it. Nasty patches of discolouration and more ick. Gross gross gross gross gross!
I may have to replace the wallpaper before the carpet tiles go down. I had a look through the cupboards and found that the old "never throw anything away" mantra paid off nicely, as I found some offcuts of the wallpaper used for this room some ten years ago. I probably don't have quite enough to remove and re-lay the whole floor-to-ceiling parts, but I've probably got enough square bits that I could kind of paste over the brown bits. I'm sure it won't come through or anything like that.
It seems that I stain everything I go near. This leaves me feeling really rather unclean. Perhaps I should try living in a plastic bubble instead. Although that might make it hard to buy wallpaper paste, which I think I should try doing tomorrow.
Well, it's all happening. I decided this afternoon that it was time to get rid of my old bed. It has been providing good service for ten years or so (and wasn't even brand new then!) but just recently it has been lumpy and bumpy, the matress going all weird and poking my bottom with its springs in protest. But today is the end. It is all part of the plan. Old broken-down double bed leaves, lovely carpet tiles go down, new box-fresh freshly assembled single bed is replaced on top. All is well.
At least the first part of that is out of the way. But here's the thing, if you ever get a chance to touch an old bed, don't. It really is very disgusting. I mean, my bed was fine for the purposes of laying down on, but once you start moving and lifting its parts, nothing but filth and grossness is found. Dust, fluff, crumbs, long-lost pairs of socks, newspapers, magazines, pens, floppy discs.. and more dust. And more fluff. And loads and loads of general 'ick'.
Unpleasant, yes indeed. Having moved the bed I notice that my wallpaper has nasty stains on it from where my body (and mostly my greasy head) has been near it. Nasty patches of discolouration and more ick. Gross gross gross gross gross!
I may have to replace the wallpaper before the carpet tiles go down. I had a look through the cupboards and found that the old "never throw anything away" mantra paid off nicely, as I found some offcuts of the wallpaper used for this room some ten years ago. I probably don't have quite enough to remove and re-lay the whole floor-to-ceiling parts, but I've probably got enough square bits that I could kind of paste over the brown bits. I'm sure it won't come through or anything like that.
It seems that I stain everything I go near. This leaves me feeling really rather unclean. Perhaps I should try living in a plastic bubble instead. Although that might make it hard to buy wallpaper paste, which I think I should try doing tomorrow.
Monday 22 September 2008
Words and Pictures
I am feeling busy and efficient. Witness my astonishing progress:
Parcels.. sent!
Bedroom carpet... planned!
Environment - saved! (The red line is how much electricity I used last year, the towers are how much I used this year - which is less!)
Good lord, I am productive today.
Sunday 21 September 2008
Jazzed
I can't believe I've left it nearly three weeks without writing a blog entry. Well, actually I can, because I've been kinda busy. But in a good way.
While it's not a particularly interesting subject, I feel compelled to chronicle just how jazzed I am feeling about my recent activities. I've sold quite a lot of stuff on eBay, and also found some people to give lots of other stuff to. This week I posted off no less than 29 items which I sold on eBay at the weekend, and as I write there are five very LARGE boxes of tat (mostly video tapes) downstairs by the door, waiting for a courier to take them all to good homes tomorrow.
Upstairs, life is good. I have more floor space than ever. I still have boxes, but at least they're neat, and diminishing by the day. I even have two spares right now which don't immediately have anything to fill them with. Yesterday I threw away a very old TV 'Pong' game, without even trying to see if I could sell it on eBay. (Although I did check later just to make sure it wasn't valuable - and it doesn't look like it is.) So that's good.
I have further tidiness plans for the week, too. On Tuesday, my old double matress with the springs which point outwards and unexpectedly surprise me in the night -- well, it shall be gone. Away down to the dump it is going. Followed shortly by the rest of the double bed. This will be followed by a few days sleeping on the floor, no doubt, until my nice new carpet tiles finally arrive. Once laid, the carpet tiles shall be augmented by having a brand spangly new bed installed on top of them. A single bed, what is more, on account of how it takes up less room. And there will be space underneath to put some plastic storage boxes too, which I am already busily filling.
The moment of victory is approaching. I shall soon be tidy and carpeted. There is still much to do, but I'm getting there. If everything goes well and I can keep up the momentum, I might even be done by Christmas. I guess two years isn't too bad for tidying up 20 years worth of accumulated 'stuff', after all...
Monday 1 September 2008
Spoiling It For Everybody
Up and down the country, in the supermarkets of this land, are express checkout queues where entrance (and subsequent checkout) is permitted only to those people who have "ten items or less".
This is obviously no good for the interfering nuisances at the Plain English Campaign, who think that this should be stopped.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7590440.stm
"Ten items or less" is clear, and has no ambiguity. So therefore, it must immediately be changed to something else, like "Up To Ten Items" instead.
[The Change] "is easy to understand and avoids any debate," said a spokesman for the notorious hippies and nogoodniks at The Plain English Campaign.
Avoids any debate? I don't think so. "Up to 10 items.." so does that mean that 10 is OK, or can you only have UP TO but not including 10? So 1 item, 2 items, 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 items, all OK.. but ten items.. Is ten items the maximum allowed, or the minimum disallowed? Room for disagreement there.
If only they could introduce some clearer wording which leaves no room for doubt. How about "Ten items or less" ? And the bespectacled geeks who come out of the woodwork and say "Ah, I think you'll find that actually it should read ten items or FEWER" can go back to their empty lives and their collection of leather-bound dictionaries which are the closest they will ever get to sleeping with an actual woman.
Just so long as I'm not saying anything controversial, right?
This is obviously no good for the interfering nuisances at the Plain English Campaign, who think that this should be stopped.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7590440.stm
"Ten items or less" is clear, and has no ambiguity. So therefore, it must immediately be changed to something else, like "Up To Ten Items" instead.
[The Change] "is easy to understand and avoids any debate," said a spokesman for the notorious hippies and nogoodniks at The Plain English Campaign.
Avoids any debate? I don't think so. "Up to 10 items.." so does that mean that 10 is OK, or can you only have UP TO but not including 10? So 1 item, 2 items, 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 items, all OK.. but ten items.. Is ten items the maximum allowed, or the minimum disallowed? Room for disagreement there.
If only they could introduce some clearer wording which leaves no room for doubt. How about "Ten items or less" ? And the bespectacled geeks who come out of the woodwork and say "Ah, I think you'll find that actually it should read ten items or FEWER" can go back to their empty lives and their collection of leather-bound dictionaries which are the closest they will ever get to sleeping with an actual woman.
Just so long as I'm not saying anything controversial, right?
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