We had the green light

 A couple of days ago permission was given for a market this Saturday But. The forecast is not to good but that;s not stopped me preparing for the big day. As the pictures below show i have been busy over the last few months boards, bowls, platters and my country collection. 

The one things i couldn't get done in time was antique mirror's for another range i have been working on. I can get antique mirror but only from Liverpool but to be fair i haven't looked anywhere else.

 

What a feature to the center of any dinner table. Who could guess the top right???

America and Iberia plus a variety of platters and bowls.

Just three of the Chestnut range and the phone is to give scale to the size of the boards.

Now this is what you call a cutting board a big cutting board, the phone is to show scale.

It's Father Cristmas

Well it's that time of year when i find a father Christmas cartoon. While searching Google found lots of pictures to choose from and just look at the first one. This was my favourite from some time ago.

 

 

Now here is this years cartoon picture of Father Christmas and very topical don't use your phone when driving.

Blood test

 I had an appointment to see my doctor at 8.30 am and duly turned  on time. Expecting to have a long wait i took my Ipad to continue reading. I need to wear glasses for reading so when told to sit and wait for the doctor i went to sit down. 

Glasses out and Ipad on great ready for a good read, no with having to wear a mask my glasses steamed up and i couldn't see. So the Ipad had to be switched of but as i switched the Ipad of my name was called. so off to the doctors room i went. I told him i need a form to go to the clinic to have a full body blood test. A blood test can show early signs of problems so i want to give myself the best chance i can. 

When i left the doctors it was only 8.45am so i went to the Clinic here in Gois. No i am scared of needles but the girl doing the blood test was amazing i would certainly go back t here again.

Now to the local supermarket and then home by 9.35 am

That was a lot to get done in little over an hour.

Going for a blood test is a precaution however i couldn't go to a doctor in the UK and ask for a blood test In the UK i would have paid to have gone to a private doctor and i would expect to pay something in the region of £75 the fee today wa s 5.50€.

Front wall painted

 Now that i have painted the front wall i have to pay attention to where the wall meets the floor.. When we get rain i get water in my workshop and it's time to repair where the rain gets in. 

I intend to cut a channel at the bottom of the wall and then the moss and all the undergrowth will be dealt with.

Soon the wall outside of the house will be finished and then it's the other side of the wall.

After getting very wet when i power washed the front wall i expect to get wet again. 

What's happened to Chicco???

 I have needed wood for projects i have and Chicco is my wood guy of choice. Sadly over the last three weeks i have been to see Chicco now five times and each time he has been closed.

I tried phoning his daughter but no reply. I then tried to email his daughter and the email got sent back because it was no longer in use.

So Chicco what has happened???

I want to buy a ruin

 What fool buys a ruin but most ruins at least have walls etc that with some work they can be made into a house again.

This ruin has only a few walls but they are at the point of falling down. If you look at the 2 pictures you will see the dangerous angle that one of the walls is at. At the side of the wall you can see there is a little lane. There is a house being rebuilt and the builders have to come up and down the lane. 

Also all the roof and floor timbers have collapsed but those timbers are a real fire hazard.

The reason for wanting to buy the ruin is because i can't do repairs to the gable end of my house. A time will come when i can't paint my house because of this ruin.

A huge paint job

 Once the veranda was started to be rebuilt i knew i had to then paint the veranda once finished.

The rest of the outside walls needed painting and now that i have a power washer i have started the job. I am only doing small amounts of the outside walls as they first need cleaning and then i have to wait till the walls dry. 

At the bottom of the walls water gets in and the bottom of the wall needs to be repaired. I will clean out the gap and then fill the gap with cement to stop the water leak before the rains come.

My prescription

 Du to above normal Cholesterol i have been prescribed Statins. I needed a new prescription so i went to the doctors and was told to go back the next day. Two days later i went back but the lady at the reception couldn't find my prescription.

That day i received an text message that because it was in Portuguese i couldn't read it. so i went back again for my prescription and again i couldn't get my prescription because they still couldn't find it. I was asked to take a seat and wait while they looked for my prescription. I took my phone over and because one of the words in Portuguese looked familiar i ask could they tell me what it meant. 

Straight away they said i had to go over the road to the Pharmacy the text was my prescription.

Moral of the story if you get a text similar to the one i received below it may be your prescription.

Receita Sem Papel, 15-11-2020, n. 

2011000052666039801, codigo dispensa 673521 

 e codigo direito opcao 9432; 

Use App MySNS Carteira para aceder a sua receita

This is the translation in English. 

Paperless Recipe, 15-11-2020, n. 

2011000052666039801, exemption code 673521

 and right code option 9432; 

Use MySNS Wallet App to access your revenue

Why haven't you posted for a while

 I recently met a friend but also a ready of my Blog. It was mentioned that i hadn't been posting for a while. Yes it is true but during his Virus i think we are pretty much all the same , What i mean is we want to avoid being at risk of catching the virus.

For me it's been not going to markets and meeting people that's been hard to take. But my time has been taken up with my fish tank. I need to do water changes and with a typical fish tank changing 10% of the water is a simple job. My tank being app 5,000 lt changing 500 lt is a timely task.

I have used up almost all the wood that is suitable for using on my lathe. I look forward to being able to stock up with wood to carry on working.

After getting a power washer i have started cleaning the walls outside of my house and then painting them. This is a long term project and over time the whole house will be cleaned and then painted.

Well that is a little of what i have been doing.

Stay safe.

My poor Orange

 I have been watching the oranges on my tree slowly growing and now turning from green to orange colour. My favourite orange is one near to the wall at the front of my house. This orange i look at when i go out or come in and it was the first one that i would eat when it was ripe.

Today i had a close look to see how it was getting on as eating day was coming soon i hoped.

Sadly this beautiful orange has been spared being eaten but it gets to grow till it falls off.

How clever is this

 How clever is this is a good title, well i think so.

A close friend recently found a book while out shopping that i may like. The book is all about Tropical fish, it.s called " The complete Encyclopedia of Tropical fish "

Great title it says it all Complete that's the word but it is wrong. Let me explain i have a 5,000 Lt tropical fish tank built into half a room in my cellar. The book is all about keeping, feeding and breeding tropical fish until you look close to the book cover.

Cover looks great but the mistake is the cover is for marine fish and no part of the contents has anything to do with marine fish. What a clever mistake to sell books however the book is still helpful to me.

OK so there is a virus

 OK for many moths life has been difficult. Here in Portugal where i live it's easy to avoid going to places of danger. Shop on days when it's quiet and don't go out unless it can't be avoided.

But what do you do during times when it's better to stay in. I have been making cutting boards in the shape of countries for when the markets start again.

The last month or so i have been using my lathe. I have been making bowls but i am slowly running out of Chestnut to carry on making more. 

Here are a number of bowls i have made during this difficult time.

If you have been doing things during your time under this virus why not share your story just get in touch.

Happy days my veranda is painted

 Happy days my veranda is now finished, painted and ready to use. It was a really warm summer day from way before i got out of bed.

I took advantage of the weather and after a cup of tea i started the last of the painting and my veranda is now complete. All i need to do now is put my table and chairs on the veranda and use what i have made.

This is the new wall finished and looking good.

The gable end is now painted, the gable end walls where rendered in a very coarse render now the walls are almost smooth and now painted white.

The bonus of my new veranda is that i now have another room downstairs. I will be able to fit lots of shelves for all my stuff that is stored in boxes.

It.s that time of year again at least for me.

 One important thing i am proud of is that in my family i was the only one to pass the driving test first time. I should of made clear here that i meant my wife number 1 and wife number 2 also my children. I hope that clears that up.

But should also add that i only had 10 lessons but i also had my own car DHF422 gone but not forgotten.

I passed my test on the 10/10/1968 and after the test i went straight back to the Butchers shop that i worked in. The owner congratulated me he was a good guy like that, but the next day his know it all son with the same first name as me had his test.

When he came back from the test he went to the flat upstairs where his family lived. After a little while his dad come down and told me he failed but he failed badly.

He tried to be a bully because he was the boss's son and he was embarrassed at failing he was a bit of a spoilt child.

It's so nice to be the first.

My newly tiled veranda

Some time ago i went to a Granite works to get tiles made for my new veranda. The price for the hand made tiles was very good only slightly more expensive that a big store. I was told of a guy who would tile my veranda but after he was at the point of grouting i stopped him as his work was less than what i expected. 

Thankfully i was introduced to someone who has a great reputation locally and he came to complete my tiling of the veranda. Below are two pictures of his work now i have a veranda to be proud of. The walls round the veranda on the inside now need painting and the job is finished.

 

I moved a freezer

 Many many years ago my then wife asked me to put the chest freezer in the Shen in the garden. Thed was a brick built shed nice and clean and tidy the right place for a freezer to go.

I started to pack all of the frozen food into bags ready for the move. The things at the top of the freezer where fine no problem until i started the things lower down. Here is where i had problems things started to become out of date. I ended up with six carrier bags of good food years out of date some over 4 years out or date. 

Now a confession while having a good spring clean OK i know it's not spring but. I recently built a new veranda with help and dust from the building work found it's work into the house. I didn't clean until all the work was complete and finished. Now was time for a massive cleaning for most of the house  but the kitchen mostly because the veranda door is in the kitchen.

While cleaning the kitchen i found a bottle of Glycerine from when i was baking. The Glycerine was out of date but not like the frozen food the date was 09/2011 9 years out of date. The Glycerine is now in the rubbish where it should have been years ago.

Big bother is watching OK it was Google

 I recently had something about Google to complain and all of a sudden What i had said was not in the list of my posts.

After getting rid of windoooooows many years ago i moved to Ubuntu Linux and i have been happy ever since.

Suddenly i found when i switched on my Ipad and i connected to the internet via Safari.   I found that every time i i connected to the internet Google would  put a message on the screen asking me to Login to Google. This is not normal so i found on the IPAD more internet browsers and i picked DUCKDUCKGO one i knew about so i made the move.

Two days after i posted about Google the last 12 months of my Blog had been taken down.

Draw your own views.

I felt i was robbed today

 Today a friend from up the lane came down with a couple of green peppers and my answer was that looks like a Stir fry. Then looking in the fridge i found a few things short if i was to have a stir fry so of i went to the shops. Not to far was a supermarket that i use and proceeded to pick all the things i needed. When it came to pay for three tomatoes, two onions, a piece of ginger, two garlic and 1 kilo flour. All this came to 4.95€ and it didn't seem right so i went outside and sat in my van

The tomatoes had a price displayed of 0.99€ kilo on my receipt was 1.99€ Wrong. The onions where marked at 0.79€ but on the receipt it was 1.39€ kilo. The garlic was also wrong but i can't remember the price difference.

I went back into the store and found a supervisor who was shock that something could be wrong. I had taken the price stickers from the shelves to show my receipt price compared to the shelf price. it took 20 minutes for the supervisor to put the items back into stock and give me a refund. I asked for a refund because it wrong to be robbed and i said i want a refund so i can go to LIDL.

This happened last week the carrots where marked as reduced from 79c to 40cents kilo. This is now two weeks that this has happened and i said if it happens next time i come in i will call the Police and then get a supervisor.

I was invited to a market

 During the lock down someone who runs a market for the premises owner. She explained about her idea selling Artisan products on the internet and her son was designing a website. My part was to make various items out of wood and i started to get lots of things ready for launch day.

During one of the many conversations i was invited to the market she runs. Well the market started back up a couple of months ago but no call. I tried to call and sent many emails but never got a reply oh well everything will sell when the markets start up again.

Today i went to that market and someone was making arrangements to have a stall at the next market. I waited for my turn to speak to my friend when she said i can't have a place for my Spices because someone sells chilli's. She did say i could sell my cutting boards and mirrors but not my Spices.

She forgets that i sent a parcel of Spices that are still not paid for yet.

Oh my poor veranda

 After so much work to give myself a new woodworm free veranda problems. I was introduced to a guy who could tile the floor to my veranda. 

I couldn't tile my veranda because the tiles had to have whats called a fall in one direction to allow water to drain away. 

So the guy got the job but he would start at 6pm each night. After he had put the tiles down on the floor he put a broom handle across the door because the adhesive had to dry.

I didn't get back the next night till after the tiles guy had started,  again i didn't get to see the work done until the next morning. To say i was shocked is me being polite.

I spoke to a builder friend of mine in the UK and he said to drown the veranda with water and to keep putting water on the veranda. He told me because the grout hadn't been put down yet the water may seep into the adhesive and make it week. 

After about and hour of pouring water down i tried to get the tiles up round the edge but i ended up removing all the tiles. The guy was supposed to come back today Saturday to finish the grouting. I got a message to him to stay away he wasn't needed anymore.

I have now been put in touch with someone else well he had better show me how good his work is.

That's all for now.