Turpentine Grows In Trees
Do you know where turpentine comes from?
Despite both my father and father-in-law being good decorators and users of turpentine, I didn’t!
Until I saw this and took these pictures.
The Russians used to grow forests especially for its product. I think it is true to say, we had found ways of making an alternative synthetic product.
European Bison
These European bison were in a reserve.
There were about fifty in the herd.
The birders in the party were excited about the number of yellowhammers. I know them well, as the birds seem to like the post-and-railed fields of studs in the Newmarket area. The birds are also regularly seen in Cambridge.
I Had To Look Twice!
When I picked up Monday’s copy of The Times, I had to ook twice at the picture on the front.
I Had To Look Twice!
I was asking myself, why they put an old picture on the front.
But then, I realised it was the daughter-in-law.
So do men, marry women, who look like their mother?
I didn’t as my mother was dark with brown eyes and C was a blue-eyed blond. But once when I visited her in hospital before we were married, everybody thought I was her brother!
Challenger Brands
This article from PR Week is untitled Challenge, stand up and stand out in 2016.
It’s aread that makes you think!
I picked the article up because it mentioned OVO Energy, s company I use and like!
A Shelf Above My Cooker
The two IKEA wall cabinets either side of my cooker hood have lights underneath. To connect the lights, I needed to run a cable across. So to solve two problems in one go, I decided that a shelf above the cooker between the units would work.
I could have used wood and painted it to match the black-brown colour of the units. but as the house has lots of exposed steel beams, I thought I’d experiment with a steel beam powder coated to patch the IKEA cabinets.
It was made for me by Anglia Fabrication and Design in Newmarket. It cost me about a hundred pounds and I could have had it in any RAL colour.
I think it works. As the pictures show, I don’t think, I’ve got the layout of the tools right yet.
My Hungarian handyman and myself mounted the steel beam on the wall using some impressive Rigifix dry wall fixings.
Rigifix Dry Wall Fixings
Note that we used a brass bolt with the fixing, which is rated at over a hundred kiolgrams.
The only problem was Jerry’s brickwork, which produced a wall as flat as the Pennines.
A Design Crime – Manchester’s Totally Crap MiGuide
When I see things like this, it really gets my anger up.
All I want in a City Centre, is a map that will show me where to go, not some indecipherable device, that I probably can’t work, as I have the sort of fingers that don’t work well with touch screens. I don’t want to be bombarded with advertising.
If I need information, like the nearest gluten-free restaurant, I’ll search Google.
Give me maps on liths like Ipswich, Glasgow, Preston, Bristol, Birmingham, Southampton and Sheffield! Or big ones with seats like Krakow!
Manchester used to have some nice maps, but they seem to have been removed.
Perhaps they’;re kept with the Ed Stone?
These devices are total crap, that should be consigned to the dustbin of the future.
They’re certainly a Design Crime.
Fireworks Above My House
I took these pictures through the sky-light above my stairs.
I think they were set off by the pub on the corner.
Warfarin And Lansoprazole
As I said in this post called Fasciitis In My Foot, I’ve got fasciitis in my right foot.
It wasn’t going away so my doctor prescribed 500mg. of Naproxen, night and morning, together with 30mg of Lansoprazole first thing, as I’m on Warfarin.
Normally, I take 4mg. of Warfarin a day, but when I am on other drugs, I test my INR regularly to make sure the drugs aren’t affecting my levels.
After a few days, my INR had gone up from its normal level of around 2.3-2.7 to around 4. So obviously, the new drug combination was raising my INR.
I solved the problem and brought the level of Warfarin down to 3mg. After a few days, my INR had returned to around 2.5.
That was a few weeks ago, but the fasciitis has refused to go away, so I am now back on the Naproxen/Lansoprazole combination, but with only 250mg. of the Naproxen.
My INR has jumped in the same way, but as before reducing the Warfarin dose to 3mg. has brought it back to normal.
I am drawn to two conclusions.
- The Lansoprazole raises my INR,
- Regular self-testing of your INR usually picks up problems.
This is very much a repeat of my experiences of taking Terbinafine, which I wrote about Interaction Between Warfarin And Terbinafine. Although that drug dropped the INR.
Is This The World’s Most Annoying Christmas Gift?
This was at a lunch today!
It is rather spectacularly annoying!
You can imagine Lord Whats-Is-Name giving it both barrels with a 12-bore.
Behind Jerry’s Cabinets
My kitchen was horrendous as the pictures in My Crap Steel Kitchen Cabinets show.
Today, Laszlo, the builder and myself removed some of them and took a look behind.
To make matters worse, we were unable to get the marble slab worktop down the stairs, so it is now lying on the living room floor.
Neither of us were amused.
Especially Laszlo, who cut himself on the steel doors.
The marble slab will be fre to anyone who wants it! But you fix your own hernias!
The Anonymous Widower 