If anybody out there knows "Ron & Ray" (Ron McRae and Ray Clarke) there is some sad news. Ray passed away a few days ago in hospital from what appears to be a heart attack having been declining in health for some years.

Ray was one of the nicest people I've ever met.

Yay! The Owls are back in town. I thought they'd gone when we had the tree work done last year.


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Covid lockdown doesn't need to be grim.

Today for example, I ordered a garden shed online.

Yes, life is a thrill a minute round these parts.

We now have a gardener! He came for the first time on Friday, tidied up the back garden, took all the old bedding plants out of the pots, and generally made the place look a lot better. Steve and I both detest serious gardening so it has slipped somewhat and is going to take a few more weeks until it's in order. He's going to visit for three hours ( Read more... )

Author, broadcaster, and journalist, Caitlin Moran was on TV this morning espousing what she calls "the stair system". This is what Steve's family do too and it drives me nuts ( Read more... )

I can never remember if his name is "Boris Trump", "Donald Johnson", or something else. What I do know is that his name is preceded by the honorific "Fucking" and followed by his official title "the lying little shit".

We have dual rate electricity here at Casa Lloyd, during off peak hours it's cheaper. One of the things that we do is run the washing machine and dryer at cheap rate which often requires use of a timer. For the past few years washing machines have come with a built in "delayed start" timer in hourly increments, perfect. It's easy. "Cheap rate ( Read more... )

The car is back home. This time it didn't break down on the way. Apparently it's all working but amongst other things they've cleared the gearbox memory - who knew it had a memory? This means it'll have to retrain to my driving style over a few journeys ( Read more... )

I picked it up from the dealer yesterday and it broke down on the way home with a gearbox failure.

I don't think that car likes me.

As of yesterday the repairs are complete. However, there's a number of service items that need to be done and they'll hopefully be completed by Monday afternoon  when I can collect the car. Tuesday at the latest. OK, possibly Wednesday :-)