No name mentioned YET

A little while ago a friend here in Portugal put a post on a Forum we are both members of needing help too buy a drill bit. As i was going back to the UK for a quick trip i told him i would get a drill bit for him. I found just what i wanted on Ebay and the price was only £4.50 so i ordered one for my friend. I contacted my friend who told me that he had found one in a town near where he lives.

At this point i had not paid for the drill bit and had forgotten all about it until i received a message from Ebay. It seems that because i hadn't cancelled the order he seller wanted his money. As i no longer needed or want the item i explained that i couldn't find a way to cancel the purchase. They replied with "    It is not possible for us to cancel the transaction." 

As i couldn't get them to see reason i can only think a sale for a drill that costs just £4.50 is really very important to them. I have closed my Paypal account and instructed my bank to pay nothing without my permission. So that's where i am up to and i have not named them as of yet but should they really need that £4.50 then i am sure they can always fly over to Portugal and go to the Small claims court should Portugal have such a system.

Imagine  this they take me to the small claims court in the UK and the Judge finds in there favor. Wow now after two weeks they send in the Bailiffs who can't find me But. Now they go to the High Court and the Judge gives the Bailiffs a High Court order and they have much more powers. Watch " Can't pay we'll take it away ". Sorry i have no UK address as i now longer live in the UK but i live in Portugal.


So watch this space.

Wood work is coming to a halt

I have been trying to varnish a number of parts for round one of my windows. Every time i try and apply varnish the finish comes out very poor so i sand each part down again. After sanding down again i try to apply more varnish being careful that i add the correct amount of water as it says on the tin. I think the mistake i am making is that i didn't notice where it gave the minimum and maximum working temperatures.

My only option now is to wait till it gets a bit warmer when i can get started again. But all my existing jobs are all based on my windows so i need to find something to do that is not based on using varnish and windows.

Here is all my present job and a couple of bits to make a couple of clocks and a table lamp. At the front is the sill for the window i am working on at the moment.

A Marines Prayer

I have no idea of the name of the Royal Marine who wrote the words below but i am sure in dark time when deployed these words may have given some comfort.

This reminds me of a songs by a singer called Wink Martindale about a pack of cards.

The cards represented a replacement for his Bible some of the words go like this." "You see Sir, when I look at the "Ace, " it reminds me that there
Is but one God. And the "Deuce" reminds me that the Bible is divided into
Two parts, the Old and the New Testaments. When I see the "Trey, " I think
Of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And when I see the "Four, " I
Think of the four Evangelists who preached the Gospel; there was Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John. And when I see the "Five, " it reminds me of the five
Wise virgins who trimmed their lamps; there were ten of them: five were
Wise and were saved, five were foolish and were shut out. When I see the
"Six, " it reminds me that in six days, God made this great heaven and
Earth. When I see the "Seven, " it reminds me that on the seventh day,

A proud father

I am lucky that i have children to be very proud of. My daughter is going to make me a Grandfather for the third time. But that brings with it a problem, i have a favourite grandson, a favourite Granddaughter. But what do we do about the next we have joked about the day i signed onto a new Forum and it said Male, Female or Other. Up till now it has been Little other but soon when it's born it will no longer be little other but a person. So that is my dilemma  how do i refer to my newest Grandchild.

I have two sons both i am so very proud of one who has made a change to his life and career. He now installs Glass and acrylic  splashbacks to kitchens but please look at the picture below to see how special they are and how good his job is.

Not my favourite but still a stunning job and well done.

This is my favourite the Liverpool Skyline this is absolutely stunning.













My other son's work i can't mention on my Blog but i can say that he is in training for a little run. We all know the London marathon and the New York marathon. Well lets tell you about a proper marathon and i mean no disrespect to those who run normal marathons.

When you put into Google  156 mile marathon the top of the Google list is

Marathon Des Sables https://marathondessables.co.uk/

This is what it says "  In just six days you will run over 250km (156 miles) through endless dunes, over rocky jebels, and across white-hot salt plains. The sun will be your constant enemy with temperatures regularly reaching 50 centigrade. The sand will be your constant companion, clouds of it under your feet, sheets of it stinging your eyes "

My son is more than capable of such a run and he is self funding his training and the entry and his run himself but he is trying to raise money for Charity the Charity is Rock2Recovery in my sons words " an amazing cause! " So what i am asking is if you can spare a few Euro's or GB pounds then please consider sponsoring him but at least read the link below. 

Below is a link
 https://teamfortitude.co.uk/participant/lee-calder/

So you can see how extremely proud of my Children each amazing in there own right.

Stair pillar now hidden

It's taken a while to get this part of the stairs finished mainly because i needed a piece of Chestnut wider that i could get. The only answer was to join two pieces together of Chestnut together.

There used to be a horrible green pillar holding the stairs up until now.

Three sides of the stair pillar are now enclosed in Chestnut all glued and clamped up and job finished.



















At the very top of the stairs i had to make this panel out of two pieces of Chestnut as i couldn't get what i wanted wide enough.

No Laundry basket not even under the bed

After completing my bedroom downstairs one thing that didn't look right was my laundry basket.It always looked out of place so i had to find an answer to having the basket in the bedroom. When i showed my son the pictures below i must admit he laughed until i explained what i had done.

For about 20€ i came up with the answer to have my laundry basket downstairs by my washing machine but. One thing i didn't want was to be having to go downstairs with my washing so i came up with my Laundry chute.

Here is the pipe now in place in the corner nice and tidy.

Here is how it works just drop the washing into the pipe and it falls downstairs to the basket.

There it is my washing down at the bottom of the chute in the basket.

I've seen lots of animals

Over the last more than six years traveling down the same lane I have seen lots of animals from  what looked like Badgers to wild Boar and birds of Prey but today. Today I saw a very young Deer and as it ran of along came another running acros the lane. I came back a couple of hours later and saw the pair of Deer again. These animals run so fast that by the time I reached my camera they had gone. In future I will have my camera out on switched on ready.

After six years driving

This is my sixth winter I have lived here in my little village. Whenever I leave the village to go into Gois or further afield I travel down a little lane only as wide as a car. This year we have had a huge amount of rain and from the forecast it's due to end soon.

I travel down this lane many times a week and this is the first time i have seen it flooded. 

Water water Oh dear me

Last year whoever gives out the rain forgot to send any to Portugal so the rivers almost ran dry. The reservoirs where so low that properties that had been flooded when the reservoirs where built got forgotten.
I don't know how long it's been raining because i was away in the UK for a while. When it rains here sometimes the rain forgets to stop for days at a time.

The ground on the left of the picture for most of the years gets baked by the sun all day everyday. When the rain comes the ground to to hard to soak up all the rainfall and it just runs of into the drains.
This picture shows the effect of the rainfall washing what loose earth there may be.

First time in my life

I am not  a plant or flower lover never have been and my answer to a garden is to pour concrete and paint it green. I don't mind trees in tubs but that's about as far as i would go.

I have a friend who has just got himself a house in my village near to me. Today i saw growing in his garden some Daffodils growing so i picked them. There where only six but i decided they needed a home in my house.
I have a Rosemary bush growing at the bottom of the lane and i took some cutting from the bush to add to the Daff's.
I don't have and won't get a vase but i do have a Grolsh glass  and for now that will do.

Since i got back

Since i got back i have been working on the Pillar on my stairs. I have the Chestnut to go round the pillar and to finish the top of the stairs.

This is the Pillar i am putting Chestnut round.

This is the pillar fitted together to check all the joints ect are OK before it gets a final coat of varnish.

 Here is the top of the stairs all dry fitted because everything needs to be varnished before final fitting.

Modern technology

Over the years technology has greatly advanced. I am due to be a Granddad again and I have seen pictures of the scans of my new grandchild. Today I received a picture of Little Others face, little other is my nickname for the baby because I don't want to know the sex till Little other arrives.
 

I have received picture of the tiny baby long before now but just look what modern science today can do. This is only a scan not a photo but who cares certainly not me i am pleased to see the next member of my family who is due to arrive soon.

How it was when the snow came

Liverpool has always been lucky when it comes to weather. What the rest of the country gets Liverpool doesn't get it as bad. The first picture is the morning after the snow came thick and cold. OK maybe not as thick as the rest of the country but thick for Liverpool.

Weather wise Liverpool never gets what the rest of the country gets. What you see is as bad as it gets and would we have it any other way no.

The picture you can see if you look out of the window you can see the snow much later in the same day.

Flying high

I was flying at 38,000ft back to Liverpool when i looked out of the window when i saw the sun setting. A few minutes later i looked again and the picture shows just what i saw a magical sunset.