Insulating now almost finished

Since i arrived back from the UK i have been busy getting the rest of the insulating done in the lounge. I have plaster boarded below the aircon unit and also under the stairs and also the first part of the stairs that comes down from the loft.

The floor was insulated first a couple of years ago when i first arrived here. Now all the internal lounge walls are completed apart from painting but with a bit of work the painting should be finished by the end of this week.

I have also polished the timber for my corner TV unit that should be put back into position i hope by the end of this week.

Here is the wall under the aircon unit insulated before the plaster board was put in position.

Here is the wall now that the plaster board has been put into position rubbed down and ready to be painted. There is still one bit to complete and that's where the aircon unit is but that can wait as the main bit has been finished.
The wholes on the left are for sockets behind the TV unit.

I combat heat lose through the walls at the side and under the stairs they got the same insulating treatment as all the other external walls. Rubbed down and now just painting is needed for ts part to be completed.

As can be seen the insulating and painting has now finished and also the TV unit has been put back in position. Over the coming weeks doors will be made for the TV unit.

I need a sheet of plaster board to complete the side of the stairs as you can see from this photo then the ceiling can be boarded and insulated.

Now the last leg of the trip from the UK

It was time to leave my overnight stop in Spain and make my way home. I could have arrived home by a little after 2pm but i wanted to take my time driving in the clear blue skies i had missed in the UK and France. Once i had filled the car with autogas it was time to leave and the difference it made not having to drive in the miserable rain that i had been driving in.

Looking ahead of me all i could see was clear blue skies and it was nice to make regular stops and just sit and enjoy the day. I was lucky that when i arrived at the turn for Salamanca i knew where to go to refill my autogas and on the whole trip this stop in Salamanca was the best to get to. After filling up it was just a few hours drive south and i would be home. After passing the Spanish border to Portugal i only had about an hour and a half to go but i still had one more fill to go and this took me of the motorway south of the turn for Guarda and onto the N17 that i know very well. The road to the next fill is a main road but it is in very poor condition in fact the lane up to my house is a better road. Where i go for autogas when at home the cost at the moment is below 60cents a litre  but where i stopped it was 75cents a litre. As it was all i needed was about 20 litrers of autogas and then next stop was to be home.

My whole journey from Liverpool to my home in Portugal was on autogas. I was lucky to be able to find autogas stations along my route even though France had not reduced the price of any of the fuels in line with the drop in the price of crude oil. If i could have filled up in Newhaven i could have got through France with only one fill at the over priced price they are charging at the moment.

This was only going through France

Monday for the start of the week was not good, it was raining and i had a long drive ahead of me. I left Liverpool at 2pm to go to my Spice supplier and then drive south for the ferry at Newhaven. It rained from Liverpool to Newhaven and guess what it was raining when got off the ferry at 4am on Tuesday morning. What a miserable drive it was from Liverpool and it looked like more of the same.

After getting off the ferry i decided to start driving as what can you do at 4am on a wet Tuesday morning. I kept off the motorways so that when daybreak came i wouldn't have a boring motorway to look at all the time. It was still dark after 8am in the morning so i just carried on driving and it was still raining. As daylight came the countryside i was expecting to see was not what i expected due to the continuous rain. I carried on driving in the hope i would outdrive the rain but even though i was making plenty of stops it just continued to rain, rain and more rain. As i got further south it became obvious that the rain was in for the day and as i had travelled so far i seemed the best thing was to just carry on and get to my night stopover.

France is such a beautiful country but not when it's raining so after more breaks i was almost down to Bordeaux. As Bordeaux was close to the border with Spain i just carried on until i crossed the border into Spain and France was behind me at last. I crossed the border at about 11pm and yes i know from 4am it's a long time to drive but believe me i took many breaks. I went into MacDonalds 5 times to use there wifi and to spend a little money for the use of the wifi. The wifi is free but only for customers and it's no good just sitting outside in  your car because the wifi doesn't work and i did try it.

the roads are No more, gone but not forgotten

I am not one to moan at home but I am not at home I am in Liverpool at the moment wishing I was at home. So what have I got to moan about bumps,bumps and more bumps, road bumps everywhere it seems that everywhere I go in Liverpool I meet the dreaded road bumps. One ot two just to brighten up the place would be ok. I whent to see my old friend Tommy who lives in a large estate. To get o his house I counted 15 road bumps it looks like an Alien had dropped them as they look to takeover the planet. You could do away with these nasty things by banning cars. Simple

Back to fuel issues

I left Portugal after filling up at about 62cents per litre. In Spain I found the price similar to those in Portugal as both countries had reduced the prices in line with the cost of crude oil. When I got to France I first saw prices at over 75cents per litre, I went past thinking this was just a service station that was expensive. Soon I found prices up to 95cents per litre and I was lucky to find a service station at only 85cents per litre and I was happy to pay it as petrol was about 139cents per litre.

I have found a site called My gpl France http://www.mylpg.eu/stations/france where is has a list if all French LPG auto gas stations and also the prices. The site says the average price is 72.9cents per litre so if that's the price where was it when I came through? And I used the main roads and not the motorways where I know Gas would be expensive.

The price of fuel has gone down in the UK, Spain and Portugal so whats wrong with France?

If that wasn't enough then i went into a MacDonald's for a medium coke, in the UK it is about £1 for a medium coke in France the same medium coke is 2.50€.

At another MacDonald's i asked for a cheeseburger but with only cheese on the burger now how easy is that. The girl even made it look like she understood what i asked for well when the burger arrived it had all the crap on that  i didn't want on it. When it came time to complain all of a sudden she couldn't understand me so i just walked out in disgust. Two mistakes out of two 100% bad record. No it gets worse.

I wanted to use the free wifi and as i was just outside of Bordeaux when i saw another MacDonald's and again i called in for a cheeseburger while i used the wifi.  This time it was no different to the last one i went in, again i was given the incorrect order but this time when i complained i was told that i should learn the language and then she turned away. A complete disgrace, i had heard of other with similar experience's while travelling through France and it seems that the same happens if you want anything that requires a bit of work.

Reading this you  would think that i have just been looking for fault in the way i was dealt with by those in France. The comments above are just about things that went wrong.  I will do a separate post about the Frence people who i found to be very nice to me.

How not to be served

While travelling back through France I had to stop for fuel a number of times. Using a car that runs on gas you only find one pump at each service station unlike those for petrol where you may have more at all stations. I was having trouble connecting the pump and a service station worker came over to help. After saying thank you in French and shaking hands I went in to pay and join the queue to pay. When it was my turn I was able to say the pump number in French and I then handed over my money. To my surprise the assistant just put the receipt down on the counter and soon the change was banged down. When I pointed to what she had done she just ignored me and served the person behind me.

Yesterday while travelling back through France i again went to a service station for autogas. As the system usages a different type of adaptor than the one fitted to my car a staff member saw me having difficult time and came over to help me. 

What a silly girl she was.

Who want's snow?

I am in Liverpool for Christmas and New Year after being invited by one of my sons  who invited me to spend Christmas and New Year with him and his Fiance. While at my Mum's it started snowing and I took a picture with my new Ipad but there was no option to upload a picture until i could transfer it to my desktop.

While i have been in Portugal now four coming on to four year i haven't heard or seen snow rumour. The picture shows the driving snow in Liverpool one evening while i was at my mum's for tea. Come the  morning the snow was gone after the forcast was to be freezing conditions following the snow thankfully the snow didn't freeze. 

Chicken Tikka Masala

On the 11th December a new restaurant opened some way away from where i live. I met the new owners at a couple of markets i had been to and i was invited to a pre opening but i got the date wrong and missed the pre opening just my luck.

I had been contacted to supply Spices to the restaurant after meeting the owners at one of the markets i go to and i looked forward to the opening. I delivered an order of Spices today and stayed to have a meal in the new restaurant. I could not have imagined what i was to expect when i arrived. The restaurant was as good as any you would expect to find in any city in the UK.

The menu thankfully was not as you would find in may places in the UK where it would be many pages long. One i had been in was 6 pages and after spending a long time reading i decided to leave. This menu selection at RestaurantePassion  was just great two pages with more than enough to choose from. My choice was Chicken Tikka Masala and wow i have never had chicken that you could cut with a spoon. The chicken was so good and the portion size was bigger than you would get in the UK. Then came desert Home made coconut ice cream on a bed of sliced pineapple with toasted almonds  and the zest of an orange. I have been spoilt tonight but now i need to start to cook food this good for myself.

I have been to many restaurants that serve a set menu and some i have been in the food was not as hot as you would expect. But it seems to be accepted by the locals. One well known restaurant where i live always serve chips that are almost cold how they manage to cook almost cold chips i don't know but they do.

Congratulations Lesley Dave and family with your new restaurant.

Here are the Longitude and Latitude setting for those with a satnav that takes these setting.

40 18 54 77 N
07 53 48 68 W

Granite Granite everywhere

This week that kind Mr David Cameron paid me my winter fuel allowance and the pictures below show just what i did with it. I got my granite as you can see so Mr Cameron thanks.

The one thing i was worried about was getting all the sections of flue together and through the ceiling and the floor below. When i put the granite down on the floor i found the floor was not quite level, it only took a few hours to get the floor nice and level and it was time to put all the granite together and in place securely.

In a local village there is a retired Portuguese builder who is going to put the flue up and out of the roof. There is no way i would even try to get up there and i don't even have a clue what to door use to water proof the flue when it comes out of the roof. So i am happy to accept help.

A bonus when my fire is being used each day will be no more cold cups of tea.

Granite from the local granite factory. Even though i used graph paper to draw what i wanted the right hand piece of granite was cut wrong but swiftly replaced with another cut.

This weekend i should be lighting my fire for the first time.

You can see the insulation i used so that the heat from the flue can't do any harm. Even over my gas hob i couldn't get the insulation to light so i am happy that the flue is insulated OK.

Back to the log burner

Now that the internal walls have been completed i can now complete the install of my log burner. I have sanded the floor where the granite hearth will go and the hearth and the granite surround have been ordered. All i need to do now is to is paint the walls and i can put the granite in place.

The floor will sanded over the weekend and then it will be varnished and job done.
A local has a friend in the next village who will run all the flue pipework out through the roof. This is not something i want to do or even try as it has to be done right first time.





While all this sanding, rubbing down has been going on the house has never looked so sad and covered with dust. But a good couple of hours spent cleaning will soon have it looking nice again.

Loads done but no pictures

Much as i would like to put some more pictures for you to see i am only doing preparation work at the moment. I am no longer having a bath in my bathroom i am going to have a wet room. I have a tiler who did work for my friend up the lane from me who gave me a little advice as to preparing my walls for the tiles. Some of the cement render on the walls was a little loose and i was told it would be best to remove all the cement render and have the walls re- rendered. It's this i am doing at the moment, it's all OK taking of the loose render but the rest is being just a little difficult to remove.

Going into the bathroom from the new doorway i have cut means a step down of about 5inch's. The tiler said that it would be better to bring up the floor level so all i would have to do is walk in instead of stepping down into the bathroom. I am going to have to cut a hole in the floor so i can relocate the WC in the opposite corner to the sink and this will give me the best use of space. As a wet room i will be able to use most of the floor to put the under floor heating pad down.

All the cable for the under floor heating, extractor fan and the lights have been set into the wall. So i have got a lot done but not enough to show you but soon i will have pictures to show what all this time has been spent on.

Iberianspices

On the left hand side of the screen i have a link to my other Blog http://iberianspices.blogspot.pt/ . The Blog is really for people who see me at the markets as i have a list of all the Spices I stock  on the left hand side of the page. In time i will change the list so i can add the prices but at the moment due to lack of space i have only listed the product i have for sale. I now carry 100 items in stock and more will arrive in the very near future.

In print at last

A long time ago maybe as much as 25 years ago i meet my best mates eldest son  who was into computers in a big way. His dad told me he was going to write a book no problem there, all teenagers need something to do.

Talking to his dad this week i am told that Jason has now published his book Wow if he does one every 25 years it's not a good way to get rich. When i was told it was a children's book i was a little surprised as i was expecting something i could read as well.

I went onto Amazon the same night and paid for a copy of the book only to find i had loads of problems. I wanted to read the book using a program called Calibre and that with the Amazon site not mentioning it was not for me as i use Ubuntu Linux on my computers seems Windows or Apple, Kindle or Android devices. So what !! Amazon i will and did find a way and i sat down to enjoy what i expected to be a kids book, Oh no this is not your normal kids book.

This book is about a detective called Harry Webb. Going back more that 25 years i knew a builder called Spider in fact i employed him to do a big job for me, why does that have anything to do with this book. The detective in the book is a Spider yes an 8 legged spider. Soon the book will be in print for those who don't like reading on a computer or Kindle. Sorry forgot to say it's a Kindle book.

I don't need to promote Jason's book the book is good enough to stand on it's own. Thanks Jason i am enjoying having a good read about Harry and Liverpool.

This book only cost £0.99p from Amazon and yes their is a link to Amazon,

http://jasonpinnington.weebly.com/harry-webb.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Harry-Webb-Potato-With-Name-ebook/dp/B00K5Y96RO

Now the hole in the floor is gone

Well i have been at it again and this time it was the floor where i had taken a wall down. When i came to prepare to cut a plank to fit the gap first i had to prepare the gape in the floor. The floor was not straight and it's there i had to start. A straight cut on each side of the floor had to be made before i could cut the plank that was to fit into the gap on the floor.

Then i had to use an Acro prop to get both sides of the floor level. Then i had to sand down the floor each side of the gap to get the floor boards level as some had highlights and low spots. This picture was taken before the plank was tapped into it's final place.

Log burner update

I received an message today offering advice as to how to put my flue through the ceiling.  I had read an article about the same issue and also asked for advice at the supplier. I hope that by showing how i am putting my fire together and to keeping safe while doing it this story will help others.

A good Forum to use for most things  to do with energy in any form have a look at  http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum

Before I light my fire for the first time i will install Carbon Monoxide Alarms in each room

When i went to Leyroy Merlin for the sections of flue i wanted i asked about insulation to protect the floor from the heat of the flue when the fire is lit. I was shown a type of insulation that has foil on one side, i was told to put the foil side against the flue when i am ready to complete the flue i will get the insulation with the rest of the flue pipes.

The first picture shows looking through the hole in the floor i have had to cut for the flue to come through. I used the shield around the flue to mark where i had to cut the ceiling for the flue to go through. I then used a glass pan lid so i could mark a hole for the flue but not as big as the shield that goes around the flue.

This is how the flue will look after the insulation gets put around  the flue.

With the window so close i have had to cut the pipe so that the window isn't covered to much by the flue. By cutting the flue the flue will then be well away from the windows.

 The elbows will not be at the side of the window but just above the floor so as to take the  flue away from the window.

More people from more Countries reading my Blog

Since i wrote about the countries that had people reading my Blog from i have kept a list of more who have viewed over the last few weeks.
Here is a list of the top viewing countries for the last week. Look at number four in the page views by Country list.


Saudi Arabia
Ecuador
Austria
Hungary
Czech Republic
Kuwait
Bahrain
Trinidad and Tobago
Iraq
Mexico
Peru
Venezuela
Bangladesh
Moldova
St Vincent and Grenadines
Cote D'Ivore
Belize  7th Nov 2014
Nepal 10th Nov 2014
Japan  11th Nov 2014
Saint Martin 25th Nov 2014
 Kazakhstan 2nd January 2015

How to protect you computers and devices

Recently a friend of mine had an almost new laptop stolen in the UK. It got me searching for a way to protect my own laptop and i found a program called Prey just do a Google search for " Prey ". See the links below.

After reading up about Prey what it does is track the location of the device that Prey is installed on. Best of all Prey works on all devices desktops, laptop, tablets, phones everything but no on windows mobile.

Windows but not mobile, Apple, Android and most types of Linux

One good feature is that should you have a device stolen is that you can lock the device so it can't be used without a password set on Prey.

I know you all who read my Blog have computers or phones with this program installed you have some protection and any protection is better than no protection.

What i would say is read all about it and decide for yourselves. The free version allows three devices if you have more than three there is a small fee. Also read the FAQ page there is lots of hints and information

https://preyproject.com/

http://docs.preyproject.com/article/80- ... ost-device

https://panel.preyproject.com/support

Finished my shelves at last.

A long time ago after finding i had a lot of very old Chestnut timber i had a plan to make the best use of the timber that i could. I started with my shelves, it may have taken a while but i am working on my bathroom and lounge at the same time.

Left and right now both the same. I finished with just what i wanted.













And then.

Not content with making the shelves by the window i knew i could make even better, and i did

The little white clouds.

After the rain had stopped for a brief time today i stood watching the clouds pass by. I noticed some white cloud high in the sky that seemed like it was not moving. Just then i noticed a dark grey cloud pass swiftly in front of the white cloud above.

I took some pictures of the very low heavy grey clouds pass by the higher very slow white clouds. These photos where taken in less than 10 seconds

Who wants yellow tomato's not me.

Remember many years ago when you where very young and you would often be told by your Mum or Dad that they know best, i am sure you do well they did.

From as early as i can remember my Dad grew tomato's and always got a bumper crop. As i grew older i was trusted to go to the nursery to get Dad's tomato plants for him. Dad grew Ailsa Craig and Moneymaker every year until he passed away.

Ailsa Craig and Moneymaker never let him down so that's where my story starts. I was given some yellow tomato's last year and even though i was not impressed with them i kept some seeds to see if i could grow my own. I planted and grew about a dozen plants and nurtured then till they started to produce yellow tomato's. The first ones where OK but over time the later ones where marked and some discoloured. The taste was nothing like normal red tomato's at all just quite bland, they didn't go to waste i just pulped them to use in curry.

In time for next year i will get some Moneymaker or Ailsa Craig just like my Dad would have had me get and my tomato problems will be over. From reading about Ailsa Craig on Google it seems that Ailsa Craig are one of the best tasting tomato's on the market so for next year it's Ailsa Craig for me.