A Clever Idea From IKEA
When I was in the kitchen showrooms in IKEA at Tottenham, I noticed that their corner cupboards didn’t have any lights. And we all know that things get lost in corner cupboards.
I have a feeling that our last two designer kitchens didn’t have corner cupboards because lighting them was difficult.
I thought that I’d be able to use IKEA’S OMLOPP LED spotlights, but wiring them can be tricky.
Then I found some IKEA STRIBERG LED strips, so I took one home.
Reading the instructions, when I got home, it appeared they were for wardrobes. But after a bit of experimenting, I found they worked in my corner cupboard. These pictures show it working.
Note that there are two things left to do.
- The door hinges need to be adjusted to get it straight.
- A hole needs to be drilled in the back of the cupboard to pass the wire through.
But it certainly works well!
Note.
- There is no wiring to do, as it just plugs together and into a 13 amp socket.
- Multiple units can be daisy-chained.
- It comes in various lengths with the 67 cm. version being ideal here.
In my view, it is much easier to install than OMLOPP.
Bermondsey Dive-Under – 5th June 2016
These pictures were taken ass I came into London Bridge today.
If you compare these pictures with those in Bermondsey Dive-Under – 10th April 2016, there would appear to have been a lot of progress.
It really is becoming an impressive structure, blending the best examples of brick, concrete and steel from the best part of two centuries.
Infuriating IKEA
In Sorting Out IKEA, I said this.
Ever since Summer 2015, I’ve been unable to purchase anything on-line from IKEA. It is very difficult trying to build a kitchen in phases to have to go to the store to buy or order everything. Especially, when you can’t drive. I am lucky, that I can get a 341 bus to IKEA from about two hundred metres away and can even catch a bus from closer, that uses the same stop as the 341 at Manor House station. So it might take about an hour, but it’s not an arduous journey.
I think that the reason for non-delivery, is that that don’t like my home address, as they use a system that checks it against a list of ones with a large number of problems in the past. These were long before I bought the house.
Things have not changed, and I still can’t buy anything on-line, despite having high credit scores that show no problems.
As I need one cabinet to fill a space, I went to the store at Tottenham to buy one.
But you can’t pick it up, as it has to be delivered. So I ordered it in the store and then had to walk miles to get out to pay for it.
How was my shopping experience? Unnecessary and f**king awful, would be the best description.
I now have something small to buy and I shall have to repeat the process for something that I can hold in one hand.
The Steptoe Solution
My kitchen is coming on, albeit slowly because of Infuriating IKEA.
These pictures show the current state.
I’m building up to the big finish, where the side by the window gets ripped out and replaced by new units.
Will we find some more of Jerry’s Wonderful Wiring.
Jerry’s Wonderful Wiring
Or even worse, as there is plumbing and water involved.
So I can’t guarantee that, we’ll be able to plan how long the shut-down of my water and washing-up facilities will be.
On the other side of the kitchen, a wall had to be rebuilt, so I suspect that getting the wiring and the plumbing correct to accept the new units will probably take a couple of days.
I haven’t got another big sink upstairs, but I do have a very small one in my bedroom, where I could wash plates and put them in the shower to dry.
As to washing saucepans and other larger utensils, it will be a Steptoe Solution, as used by Harold to wash his clothes, when he had a bath.
Why I Support Cancer Research UK
In yesterday’s post; There’s More To Liverpool Than Football And The Beatles, I talked about how researchers at Liverpool University had developed a better prostate cancer treatment. I posted this from an An article in The Guardian.
The ESPAC trials, which began publishing findings in 2004, showed that chemotherapy with gemcitabine brings five-year survival up to 15-17%, doubling the rate of survival with surgery alone. The latest research, presented at theAmerican Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, showed the two-drug combination nearly doubles the survival rate again to 29%.
It showed, said Neoptolemos, that chemotherapy does work in pancreatic cancer, even though most attention in cancer research is now focused onimmunotherapy, and precision or targeted medicine.
But the trial would not have happened without funding from the charity CancerResearch UK (CRUK), because both drugs are old and off-patent, meaning they can be made by any generic drug manufacturer and are consequently cheap. Drug companies would not foot the bill for such a trial because the profits to be made are small.
“This is an academic-led presentation,” said Neoptolemos. “This shows the enormous value of CRUK. Without them, none of this would have happened. There is a lot of pressure [on doctors] to do drug company trials because you get £2,000 to £3,000 a patient. For something like this, you don’t get anything. It has been quite tough to do.”
That is a very strong endorsement of Cancer Research UK.
Today, there is this story on the BBC web site, which is entitled Bowel cancer: Stents ‘may prevent need for colostomy bags’. This is said.
Bowel cancer patients may avoid the need for colostomy bags if they are first treated by having an expandable tube inserted at the site of their blockage, cancer doctors have said.
The new approach, presented at the world’s biggest cancer conference, showed that the tube, or stent, cut the risk of complications from surgery.
The trial took place at Central Manchester University Hospitals! And who funded the trial? Cancer Research UK!
So I shall keep supporting the work of Cancer Research UK!
Using Lea Bridge Station For A Purpose
After going to IKEA, as I often do, when I only have one blue bag, I caught the first bus that appeared of either a 192 to Tottenham Hale station or a 341 to the area of Hackney, where I live.
It was a 192 and I took it, now that I have four trains to choose from at Tottenham Hale station.
- A train to Liverpool Street via Hackney Downs.
- A train to Stratford via the Lea Bridge station.
- A direct Liverpool Street train.
- A Victoria Line train.
The first two would be the most preferable, as a bus can take me to fifty metres from my home from either Hackney Downs or Lea Bridge stations.
I could also take a 76 bus to Dalston Junction station. That bus is not as slow as the 341, which gives you a mystery tour of a lot of Haringey and tends to get stuck in the traffic of Tottenham High Road.
As I walked into the station, the first train was announced as a Stratford train via Lea Bridge and by running across the bridge, I was able to get on a fairly crowded train.
Five minutes later and I was on the platform at Lea Bridge station.
After a walk of about a hundred metres with no bridges, two steps and two light-controlled crossing, I was at the bus stop. But I’d just missed the 56 bus, that takes me directly home. So I took the first bus that arrived to Clapton Pond, where I got on one of the frequent 38 buses to my house.
It may seem complicated compared to taking the Victoria Line to Highbury and Islington station, but that station is a 1960s monstrosity, built when the disable didn’t go out or even exist. Walking routes in the long tunnels and bus access at Highbury and Islington is not good either.
But Lea Bridge station is already proving its worth. Several people on the train had used the new station and a young lady at the station said she used the station a lot.
But the station needs more trains and two trains per hour is not enough, especially when Angel Road station is upgraded.
I have a feeling that the forecast traffic through this station will be in the same class as those for the Borders Railway.
There’s More To Liverpool Than Football And The Beatles!
This morning, this story on the BBC web site entitled ‘Major Win’ In Pancreatic Cancer Fight is one of the top stories. This is said.
A new combination of chemotherapy drugs should become the main therapy for pancreatic cancer, say UK researchers.
The disease is so hard to treat that survival rates have barely changed for decades.
But data, presented at the world’s biggest cancer conference, showed long-term survival could be increased from 16% to 29%.
The findings have been described as a “major win”, “incredibly exciting” and as offering new hope to patients.
I must admit that I feel a touch of pride, as the study was led by Professor John Neoptolemos at Liverpool University, which was where my late wife and I met when we were both students at the University.
But I also feel a touch of relief for others, who might get this awful cancer in the future, as now they may stand a better chance of survival, than did our youngest son; George, who survived just a few months after diagnosis.
I also raised a small sum of money for the research by visiting all 92 English and Welsh football clubs in alphabetical order by public transport. The main funding for the research included Cancer Research UK and I think some EU money!
The BBC story also says this.
The trial on 732 patients – in hospitals in the UK, Sweden, France and Germany – compared the standard chemotherapy drug gemcitabine against a combination of gemcitabine and capecitabine.
I’ve looked up the two drugs mentioned and both are on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, which are the most important drugs needed in a basic health system.
An article in The Guardian is also illuminating. This is said.
The ESPAC trials, which began publishing findings in 2004, showed that chemotherapy with gemcitabine brings five-year survival up to 15-17%, doubling the rate of survival with surgery alone. The latest research, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, showed the two-drug combination nearly doubles the survival rate again to 29%.
It showed, said Neoptolemos, that chemotherapy does work in pancreatic cancer, even though most attention in cancer research is now focused on immunotherapy, and precision or targeted medicine.
But the trial would not have happened without funding from the charity CancerResearch UK (CRUK), because both drugs are old and off-patent, meaning they can be made by any generic drug manufacturer and are consequently cheap. Drug companies would not foot the bill for such a trial because the profits to be made are small.
“This is an academic-led presentation,” said Neoptolemos. “This shows the enormous value of CRUK. Without them, none of this would have happened. There is a lot of pressure [on doctors] to do drug company trials because you get £2,000 to £3,000 a patient. For something like this, you don’t get anything. It has been quite tough to do.”
So this is not some elite drug for the rich, famous and powerful, but one that might even be applied everywhere.
I must admit, that I’ve shed the odd tear this morning!
Thoughts On My Vitamin D Deficiency
I’m now convinced that the cause of my bad springs and substantial absences from school as a child, and periods of bad health since, is due to a periodic vitamin D deficiency.
I suffer from several of the same symptoms as my father, who was most likely the parent from whom I inherited coeliac disease.
As a child, I didn’t go out in the son much, as I think I found it a bit painful and I burned. My father was the same in those days and was very much a man for his garage or shed. He only ventured out to smoke his pipe.
The problems dropped, when I went to Liverpool University and met my future wife. But then she would drag me out into the sun for a walk, with great regularity.
When I was diagnosed as a coeliac, I thought this would be the end of it all. And it did get a bit better, with the bonus that I could now sunbathe without burning. I also stopped being bitten by mossies.
Since the death of my wife, my stroke and moving to London, the bad springs and a lot of the other symptoms have returned.
But no-one could say the weather in London and it seems much of North and Central Europe has been very sunny over the last few years.
I even took a holiday in Croatia for some sun, but in My Home Run From Dubrobnik, I saw probably a day and a half of sun at most!
I’m now on vitamin D3 tablets and they appear to help.
But I think, what I need is a good scientific book on vitamin D, how it is absorbed by the body and what it actually does.
So much of what I get told seems to only have vague science behind it!
If I could find a top class University, where they were doing serious research into vitamin D, I’d go halfway round the world to talk to them.
Farewell To The Old Gospel Oak To Barking Line
Today is the last day, that you can ride the Gospel Oak to Barking Line to the East of South Tottenham station, until after the wires are erected in a few months time.
So I took some pictures.
I must say I have not been impressed with progress so far.
- It looks like a large proportion of the piles are in the ground.
- If the piles are in the ground securely, why aren’t more masts erected?
- There would appear to be no start on clearing the platform extensions.
- Only in one place did I see a work-site.
- I didn’t see anyone actually working.
- There is masses of litter
- There’s no sign of how the stations will be electrified.
With my limited experience of looking at large projects that are in trouble, this project has the air of something not being up to scratch.
What has really puzzled me about this project, is that the information coming from Network Rail and especially TfL, has not been up to the usual standard.
The Longer Overground Platfortms At Whitechapel Station Are Now Visible
This picture shows the Northern end of the Overground platforms at Whitechapel station.
Overground Platforms At Whitechapel Station
It would appear that they have grown enough extra platform length to accommodate all five cars, once some finishing work is completed.
It has been said that after Crossrail opens, these platforms will be at full size!
The Anonymous Widower 