New Grump of the Day

[Feltwell]

Despite being on the edge of town, with said town lit up below us complete with Christmas Lights, we are on a rural circuit and our power went out Saturday morning for almost a whole day. We had eventually been told it would take until Sunday evening to fix, so spent a few hours on Saturday spreading the home grown contents of two large freezers amongst the freezers of some very helpful neighbours starting four doors down the road! That still left one very large freezer full of home grown produce deemed less likely to spoil. Power came back on this morning so that was a relief, although only after we found out what happens to our burglar alarm when the backup battery finally runs out - there are several bouts of beeping, each of which needs cancelling at the keypad downstairs. When the keypad finally dies, the external alarm goes off for twenty minutes!

There's a rechargeable anti-tamper battery in the external bell box, that goes off if gets no current from the controller. It can go off for 20 minutes at a time up to 3 times, depending on how it's been set up! You can just take the cover off and disconnect it- I had to do that, with ear defenders on, to a neighbour's alarm box at 3am one time. They didn't get it maintained, the lead acid battery in the controller was toast, so every time there was a power cut the bl@@dy external alarm instantly went off. Suffice to say that after some words, they replaced the battery.................

The rechargeable battery in the bell box can be left disconnected if you want, it just means that if someone breaks into the house, isolated the alarm controller from the mains, opens the controller up and removes the battery, it will silence the alarm. I'll take that risk to stop any nuisance alarms! Makes it easier to isolate it all for maintenance as well.

I'm not a total alarm nerd, in-laws ran a security business installing them for many years, so I've fitted them to my own houses.

 

[Feltwell]

A seasonal grump. This was me last night, Land Rover impersonating Rudolph, towing Santa round for the Round Table:-



First grump is that is "Santa", not Father Christmas, any more. Another Americanisation. Second grump is just how few kids came out to see him. Is he losing his appeal?

 

[LadyArowana]

A seasonal grump. This was me last night, Land Rover impersonating Rudolph, towing Santa round for the Round Table:-

View attachment 15424

First grump is that is "Santa", not Father Christmas, any more. Another Americanisation. Second grump is just how few kids came out to see him. Is he losing his appeal?

You need to play the icecream truck music!

 

[Gothichome]

Offer up free mulled wine, the grown ups might just drag the children out with them

 

[Flyfisher]

Perhaps they were put off by the police escort. Are the streets of Shropshire really that mean?

 

[Cubist]

First grump is that is "Santa", not Father Christmas, any more. Another Americanisation. Second grump is just how few kids came out to see him. Is he losing his appeal?

My guess is that they were all sat comfortably in their bedrooms watching the show on their phones or widescreen tvs while watching the show outside broadcast to them via their Ring doorbell cams.

Kids today, never had it so good in my day.

Bah humbug, mutter, mutter......

Oooh, forgot to mention, the First Ladies back! However, rather than absconding to a nearby Spa Hotel she decided to stay at home but demanded penance, for my foolhardiness in starting the kitchen re-decoration before Darragh hit, in the shape of nightly visits to restaurants and other suitable hostelries of her choice.

Ah well, wallet may end up considerably lighter but.... I'm saying nothing more she may be hovering behind me.

 

[Feltwell]

You need to play the icecream truck music!

Ahh, Father Christmas, up there in his chimney, had the Christmas music on and his own PA system to talk to the locals! I didn't realise that Father Christmas had a bit of a Brummie accent, did you?

 

[Feltwell]

Perhaps they were put off by the police escort. Are the streets of Shropshire really that mean?

This was the mean streets of Solihull, posh bit of Brum! Only orange flashing lights on his escort, no blue ones. They did get pictures one year of Father Christmas being arrested, courtesy of a passing police car with a sense of humour!

 

[Craig89]

A seasonal grump. This was me last night, Land Rover impersonating Rudolph, towing Santa round for the Round Table:-

View attachment 15424

First grump is that is "Santa", not Father Christmas, any more. Another Americanisation. Second grump is just how few kids came out to see him. Is he losing his appeal?

Good on you for helping out with that, and a shame not many children turned out, was it advertised in advance?

I make an effort to refer to "Father Christmas" with my 4 and 2 year olds, as I too much prefer it over Santa.

 

[Feltwell]

Good on you for helping out with that, and a shame not many children turned out, was it advertised in advance?

I make an effort to refer to "Father Christmas" with my 4 and 2 year olds, as I too much prefer it over Santa.

You're fighting a losing battle there I'm afraid Craig, mine all say Santa, despite my best efforts.

Yes, santa sleigh is well publicised on Facebook with all the routes, there is even a tracker on the sleigh so you can see his progress live! Maybe it's the area we were in, though they looked like family houses to me, mostly modest 1930's semi's.

 

[LadyArowana]

At least it hasn’t descended into being a “Festive Procession”!

 

[Cubist]

According to my brother one of his smart mouthed grandsons has been campaigning for parity with kids of other faiths and demanding that gifts in recognition of Hanukkah, Eid, Diwali as well as Christmas should be the modern practice.

My brother and I are united in a determination to acknowledge and concede to this demand by each presenting him with a 'Boot to the Backside'!

​

 

[LadyArowana]

According to my brother one of his smart mouthed grandsons has been campaigning for parity with kids of other faiths and demanding that gifts in recognition of Hanukkah, Eid, Diwali as well as Christmas should be the modern practice.

My brother and I are united in a determination to acknowledge and concede to this demand by each presenting him with a 'Boot to the Backside'!

​

In order to qualify for an Eid gift don’t you need to fast for Ramadan?That might dampen the enthusiasm.

 

[Cubist]

n order to qualify for an Eid gift don’t you need to fast for Ramadan?That might dampen the enthusiasm.

Ta much and added to the counter arguments list alongside the Boot in the Backside..... oh, and the BarMitzvah implications. Now that should shut him up.

 

[WetWales]

Just finished grouting the shower at our house, a sort of friend started the tiling and did one wall, then ran out of time so I took over and did it myself. Never tiled a shower before , did kitchen in rental house when pregnant but didn’t bother grouting was very uneasy to discover that my adhesive had squished out the sides and that’s no recommended for a good grout filling so I spent a good hour + with a Stanley knife and then a multi tool blade once I’d got fed up with the knife, digging out the joins for the grout.

My grump is that friend who’s a professional plumber and does it all the time, well. HIS JOINS WERE WORSE and I had to dig his out too!!!

Finally managed to grout it all whilst simultanisouly watching how too on YouTube !

I am sure that doing jobs yourself , most of them, even if you don’t know what you’re doing but take the time to learn how, it’s. Better job doing it yourself as you take way more time and care over things,
Maybe it should go in cheer of the day!!

- had to do before plumber came back tomorrow , if I didn’t finish grouting we’d have to fit it all ourselves which would be just another thing on the long list that we’re doing ourselves!

haven’t moved in yet, madly trying to finish to move in this weekend, not necessarily for Xmas but so other half can have a proper rest from work over the Xmas break and not be building or digging or cutting slate or skirting or hammering brads into oak floorboards or pointing slate or mixing lime

Bloody Christmas making a deadline is bloody annoying!!

 

[WetWales]

Oh I forgot the 2nd grump!!

Size of the tiles!!
When I thought someone else was doing it I didn’t really mind,

When I ended up doing it myself I wish I’d gone for very large tiles!!!

 

[a twig]

Oh I forgot the 2nd grump!!

Size of the tiles!!
When I thought someone else was doing it I didn’t really mind,

When I ended up doing it myself I wish I’d gone for very large tiles!!!

View attachment 15457

Ha definitely empathise with this one - my wife wanted metro tiles in our bathroom at the last place, I did it but never again!

 

[Zebra]

I so agree WetWales, about doing stuff yourself if you want a good result (with the exception of fitting a gas boiler, external rendering and roofing, in my case).
However, I find a smaller tile more forgiving in terms of unevenness. If a big one is out of square, you really notice it. What is unforgiving with tiles, is glossiness, as the light reflection really shows up your mistakes!

 

[paulc]

Large format tiles come with a bunch of other problems.. To ensure full coverage of adhesive, they need back buttering. A tile leveling system is a must to avoid lippage and your prep has to be spot on. On the plus side, fewer joints, so grout goes a lot further.

 

[Flyfisher]

I am sure that doing jobs yourself , most of them, even if you don’t know what you’re doing but take the time to learn how, it’s. Better job doing it yourself as you take way more time and care over things,
Maybe it should go in cheer of the day!!

That is most definitely true in my experience! I could never make a living using all the skills I've acquired during my renovation project because I'm far slower than professional tradespeople but I like to think my work is as good, if not better, because of the care and attention to detail I put in. It's also very satisfying to DIY, not just to save money but also for the creative process and learning new things, which is no bad thing as our brains age. I still don't like decorating though!