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Posts Tagged ‘few days’

I left home last Monday for a ‘lock-in’ at Shrigley Hall near Macclesfield to work on a particular project with colleagues and I am now sat in the conference room of the hotel tucking into warm bacon and egg muffins with lots of tomato sauce.  For once this week, I actually managed to have a lie in and thought while I wait for my colleagues and also not wanting to ring Paul at home too early, that I would catch with the happenings of pryordurkin.com.

News from home was interesting to say the least.  When we woke last Sunday morning to squeaks and gnawing above our heads we decided it might be a good idea to call in Rentokil to check our loft space.  The news was not good on Tuesday after the man from that company left.  We had a rat and some mice in our loft and were now committed to £60 a quarter bill for them to solve the problem.  They did say it would take a few days before the little blighters left and even last night when I rang home, the news of further sounds coming from the loft confirmed that we still had the visitors.  The chap from Rentokil did say it would take a little while.  The other problem we are left with is that we now know the reason for a couple of our ceiling lights no longer working despite us putting new bulbs in.  The little blighters are apparently quite partial to a bit of wiring.  We are now going to have to call the electrician to check the state of our wiring in the loft and repair the damage done.  Paul assures me though that with a modern fuze box, the risk of a fire starting is low!

The good news was that with the ‘food’ put down for the rat, that he/she when eating it, would then want to seek water and would leave the property in search of a stream. 

Apparently he/she would not return…

The odds of a white christmas jumped significantly this week as the snow has been falling over the last few days and the temperature plummeting.  When we got up this morning to a snug warm home, we checked the weather station outside our home and it was reporting -12.7 degrees centigrade.  We couldn’t believe just how cold it was until we switched on the news where the local weather reporter mentioned -14 degrees centigrade had been recorded at Topcliffe (not far from here in North Yorkshire).

Still, inside our home, the now up and running Aquarium was humming away at a steady 25.6 degrees centigrade keeping the little tropical fishes that joined our family yesterday, nice and warm.  Along with tropical underwater planting, it is in stark contrast to the white snow covered views outside the back of our home.

The challenge that remains now, is how we prevent Sooty, who has been taking an ever increasing interest in the Aquarium, from getting hold of the little fishes inside.

I’ve been itching to re-erect the water fountain that had been packed and wrapped for winter. So with the sun shining and it being quiet on the old work front, I decided to start this seemingly simple task a few days ago. The story goes like this, but be warned you might want to get a cup of tea and a chocolate bourbon as this one could take some time to read:-

Wednesday 1st April (before noon – which was clearly a mistake with hindsight!)

• Unwrap the winter protecting bubble wrap from the base that stands outside. Unwrap the electric pump that had been ‘carefully’ left in the bottom of the base – this is because it is hard wired into the main through a conduit pipe that runs 3ft underneath our garden (long story – ask Paul) to comply with electrical safety standards. (This is an important fact so bear with me)
• Clean the base, collect the rest of the parts from the garage and re-assemble.
• Fill with water.
• Turn power on. Look out garage window to see if the fountain is working. Turn Power off….. Turn power back on thinking I must have imagined turning it on last time, but hadn’t actually which would explain why no water was flowing. Look out window….Still no water…… Curse….
• Take fountain apart, empty water (don’t ask where) and examine pump. Check I’d turned electric off!  Continue to fiddle with pump. Realise it doesn’t seem to turn……Realise it’s seized up over winter….. Curse…..
• Have a cup of coffee to calm down.
• Re-assemble the fountain so it at least looks the part even though it doesn’t work and give up for the day.

Thursday 2nd April (over lunch – I was hungry so not thinking straight!)

• Visit Deans Garden Centre to pick up new water pump for £27.99 (guaranteed for 1 year only!) and some garden string.
• Get home, have lunch, take fountain apart.
• Turn electric off to entire house – you can’t be too careful with electric and water.
• Open electric box at outside wall and disconnect pump. Tie string to end of pump wire.
• At the pump end, pull the wire with the attached string through the conduit. All seems to be going well.
• Take the wire from the new pump and at the fountain end of the conduit attach to string.
• Pull string at the box end…. cable starts to make it’s way through conduit.
• Start wondering what would happen if string breaks inside the conduit. Contemplate having to dig up garden and the three foot trench along with all the now established planting by Paul. Start to sweat as I slowly continue to pull string. String tightens. Realise this needs the attention of a patient gentle measured person. Continue to pull string, but just a little harder……….Curse Curse Curse……. Guess what?…. Yes string broke……..
• Burglar alarm and siren kicks off. Neighbours now looking at me holding a piece of string listening to a siren blaring. They have a look of wonder in their eyes (the alarm goes off, if the power is cut to our house! – see above)
• Put electric cover and wires back in place to make them safe. Turn electric power to house back on and reset alarm.
• Burglar alarm and siren finally fall silent. Bliss… My ears are hurting by now.
• Re-assemble the fountain so it at least looks the part even though it doesn’t work and give up.

Later that day after I’d finished work, I had the idea of taking comfort by searching the web for stories about other poor people who also had a pipe buried 3ft underneath their gardens with no string to pull anything through. I was amazed to discover this is not an isolated problem. Maybe the pryordurkin effect is more common that we thought.  Reading through some of these stories various ideas were offered up.  One involved attaching a vacuum cleaner to one end of the pipe and new string at t’other. The idea being the string would be sucked through. Discounted this on the basis that the pipe seemed to be full of water; I’d have to have the electric to the house switched on, there would be bear electric wires near the entrance of the conduit with lots of water around and the water would be sucked into hoover rendering it ‘baggered’ (see I can think ahead and spot risks). Another idea involved something called a fish tape. Did a bit more research and discovered you could buy such a thing at our local Screwfix store. I headed straight there and picked one up.  I also picked up some nylon string which with hindsight is less likely to break than garden string which was made out of natural fibre (not a great choice thinking about it now).

Look forward to trying the fish tape out tomorrow after work!  Apparently it magically works it way through the pipe by just pushing. Yea right. We’ll see….

Come back soon and find out whether Paul has to move his plants and dig up another three foot trench across the garden to get access to the pipe or see if the fish tape does actually work….

Queue Eastenders cliffhanger music……..

Our Cat Tia

I’d noticed Tia limping a little over the last few days so decided a trip to the vets was in order.  I rang the vets at 3pm this afternoon and they kindly booked me in at 6.20 this evening.  No sooner had  I put the phone down from calling the vets  when Tia then decide she wanted to go outside and hunt ‘mousies‘.  Ten minutes later she was climbing the fence out the back of our house and stretching out as she does, to have a nice old claw (with BOTH Paws!).  After she finished I think she must have realised the error of her ways as she then proceeded to limp as she entered the house.  I was starting to think she was having me on, but didn’t like to cancel the vets.

Sure enough though, fifty quid lighter in the pocket, I left the vets at 6.30pm assured there was nothing wrong with her except perhaps a little scrape which would heal naturally.  I think the vet saw the look on my face though, hence the injection to reduce the swelling and drops to give Tia over the next few days.  I suspect they were both more for my benefit than hers.

With the last minute shopping done, we’re pretty well set for a few days eating, drinking, sleeping and watching TV.  Some might say “How is that different to any other day at home?” but we tend to ignore those questions.   The last few days had us trying to second guess what the other might want as a little pressie from Santa.  We had said earlier in the year, that we would invest in the house instead, but at the last minute we bought a couple of token gifts to open on Christmas morning.  (Well I’m hoping they are token. Mine certainly are!)  Finally I had thought of donating some money to save the rainforests but apparently it is not as important as it once was!

The nice man from Royal Mail brought us a package this morning.  Marked from Australia we’ve resisted the urge to poke and prod. Instead it is safely nestling under the tree.   We haven’t quite decided if we will travel anywhere over the holiday.   We might just close and lock the gates our home and spend a few days locked up with just each others company.  However we are planning to start the onslaught on our digestive systems with a few drinks in town tonight followed by dinner at a (with a) small Italian we know on the Shambles.

Anyway have a good one yourselves and don’t forget to eat all your greens!  P&M  xx

Well, Paul set’s off in the morning to his conference in Switzerland for the week, leaving the cats and me to fend for ourselves. Unfortunately, the cats are better equipped to look after themselves than I am.  For example; they are clearly more adept at catching mice judging by the number of remains we find around our home.  The next few days will therefore see me eating loads of junk food, with little by the way of vegetables or vitamins.

If by chance you read this, feel sorry for me and know where I live then do feel free to send round a good home cooked meal, a decent bottle of wine and perhaps the odd cream desert or two

Update 10th Oct 2009.  Sale still on.  Purple balloons this time!

26th May 2009. Guess what?  Go on; you know you want to.  Yep the bargains are still on offer at County House Jewellers in York.  This time, their cynical tactics don’t include the word ‘Sale’; instead they say ‘Everything Must Go’ and indicate knocked down prices on the big yellow cards in the window.  As you can see from the picture taken on Tuesday 26th May 09 over lunch, the big red balloons have this time being joined with a couple of white ones! They do say variety is the spice of life.

FANTASTIC NEWS. 21st March 09. They changed the LAST FEW DAY Cards for new LAST FEW DAY Cards.  As mentioned on the 13th March, they were looking a little weather worn!  Relax though, the same red balloons are still up.

UPDATE.  13th March 09.  Go on. Have a guess…  Yep your right.  Same red balloons AND same LAST FEW DAYS Cards in the windows – At least they are starting to look weather worn now.

UPDATE.  2nd Feb 09.  You guessed it.  The red balloons are still there along with the same ‘last few days’ sign.

27 December 2008.  UPDATE>  NEWS FLASH>  YEP – WAIT FOR IT>  The red balloons and yellow stickers were still there when I past today.  The sale continues….. only this time there are a few more red balloons!!!

Original Post.

We pretty much pass through York every weekend and one particular shop has stood out since we moved there last year. Our first visit back in March 2007 had us passing County House Jewellers where with bright red balloons and big yellow posters they advertised a sale event.  In the last 18 months whenever we have past since, on our weekly trip into the city, the same bright red balloons and big yellow cards have been in evidence.  Call us cynical, but how many sales, closing down events, end of season bargains can you have every week over the last 18 months?   When I asked the staff about their ‘continuing’ sale they got very defensive and shirty about it.

Pryordurkin Rating. Zero.

A quiet weekend was the order of play this time around.  Saturday starting late and Sunday following this same pattern.  Having seen a very good recipe for Apple Pie on the BBC Hairy Bakers series, Paul decided (with my encouragement) to give it a go.  Much shrieking took place during the making of the pastry.  Determined not to have a soggy bottom (Hairy Bakers words!), you have to bake the crust first.  As you can see to the left, the pastry took a little working thru.  Eventually though, I have to say, a perfect and very nice tasting pie came out the oven.  The only problem being, it is huge for just the two of us.  However never wanting to waste anything I am sure we will work our way through it over the next few days.

The usual routine has me returning to London today and as I left the house, the two babies didn’t look too stressed that I was heading off, not to return for a few days.  I am sure they do miss me, but they don’t like to show it, in case I fret!

Checking into the Hotel yesterday, the reception process was quick and efficient. The chap on the desk new his stuff and was polite and professional. Unfortunately this was the highlight. Getting out the creaky life on the 1st floor, I could feel my mood sink rapidly. The corridor was long, dingy and dated. The carpet looked like it had seen to many stag or hen nights and the wallpaper should have been stripped of in the 70′s. The lighting only added to the misery as I headed towards my room.

The room was large in size and had a large queen sized bed but that was about the only thing that impressed. The TV reception was poor, the cleanliness of the room (especially behind the lamp stands and bed) was filthy and hadn’t seen a dusting for a good few months. The bathroom consisted of dated tiles and ceramics which included hairs left behind by the previous occupant. As usual in hotels of this sort the air conditioning didn’t actually cool, just recycled already too warm air. (Apparently hotels don’t seem to realise that they have to actually turn on the outside coolers to chill the air! – or they do, but choose not to save money).

Resigning myself to a miserable few days in this god forsaken hotel, I headed down to the gym to work out my frustration in the pool. Thankfully this was a better experience. Again the staffs were knowledgeable and friendly.

After that, it was time to check out the restaurant. It started badly and only got worse. Shown to my table I could see they were understaffed and overworked. The staff trying their hardest had no chance. Placing my order I settled back too tired to care. The food arrived (I had to remind them I was still waiting for my drink) and I started. At this point I heard an argument kicking of behind me. One of the BT engineers who had obviously been here a few days was finally giving up the will to smile. Shouting loudly that the food was disgusting he mouthed of at the waiters and stormed out the restaurant. It turned out that I should have followed. The food on my plate was luke warm and consisted of various portions of micro waved or fried food. Foul, foul, foul.

My drink arrived which incidentally was overpriced as usual for the quality presented.

Heading back to my room to finish my drink I’d had enough of today.

Breakfast turned out to be a bit of a surprise. It was actually quite nice with a good choice of healthy and traditional (un healthy) options.

The rest of my stay was pretty much the same. I will be pleased when the Croydon Park Hotel re-opens but in the meantime will find somewhere else to stay rather than return to this miserable place.

AMENDED. THURSDAY. I take it all back about breakfast. Today I was told to wait in the bar area because they had no tables ready. Along with three other business people we sat grumpily waiting to be seated. The ‘manager’ seemed to be making a crisis out of a hiccup, the place was chaotic.

Score: 0 Stars.

One of the best places we stayed at in Ibiza. Spotless, friendly, close to Talamanca where many up and coming trendy restaurants and bars have opened. This is a nice relaxing hotel with friendly staff and good service. The rooms are spacious, modern and comfortable with excellent air conditioning. Spotless and clean, the staff the spanish staff take real pride in their work.

A small walk away is the beach and the ‘shuttle boat’ that hops across to Ibiza Town.  The staff are very friendly and accommodating.  It’s like visiting a relative for a few days when you stay.  The breakfast is served up continental style as you would expect and you can enjoy it both in the restaurant area or outside under the morning sun.

A fantastic place to have the best of both worlds.  Partying and relaxation.  Take your pick.

Rating 3 Stars.

Tel: +0034 971 31 34 69- Fax: +0034 971 30 25 66