The Intelligent Decorator
My father was no mean wielder of a paintbrush, not in an artistic sense, but as a decorator. As he used to drive me to his print works in Wood Green, he’d sometimes tell how when they built the houses in Waterfall Road in Southgate in the 1930s, he had a contract to paint them for just a few pounds a house. He did teach me, but I’ve never been very good at it, although I used to be able to hang wallpaper. My hands probably aren’t good enough now!
My late father-in-law was also a professional painter and decorator in Barnet, working for a firm called Curtis. He would tell tales about how in the richer parts of the area, such as Hadley Wood, how sometimes he’d wallpaper the same house, as many as three times, because the lady of the house or the cat didn’t like the new colour scheme. C used to say he had endless patience, which was why he was in so much demand.
And then there was Terry. He used to do the decorating for us at Debach and when we moved to West Suffolk, we still continued to use him. He was neat and tidy, never smoked and sometimes you never even knew he was in the house. In one case, we’d asked him to paint a bedroom and C phoned him up to ask when he was coming. But he’d already done it!
Sadly Terry died of cancer a couple of years ago. The funeral was one of the best attended, I’ve ever seen, such was the respect he was held in the town of Ipswich.
So when I see good decorators I know what I’m looking at.
My new house was in a terrible state, as the previous owner had rented it to tenants. There were rather hideous constructions in some of the wardrobes, television wires everywhere and all sorts of damage. The builders had also not built some of the details properly either and the house had never been desnagged, as it should have been under its guarantee.
I arrived yesterday about nine and found that the decorator, one Mark from Harlow, had really cracked on and was doing a good job.
My New Living Room Takes Shape
The picture shows the main living area of the house. The walls are being painted ivory and the original specification said that the steel beams were to be black. But the first thing Mark said was that the beams just needed a good clean and the original chocolate colour would be much better. How very Great Western, as it’s almost chocolate and cream!
By the way, notice the blinds in the photo, they may be rather broken, but that was because they’re the wrong size in the first place.
But to return to the colour scheme. I agreed with Mark on the colour of the beams and they will be left, at least for a few years.
Terry, my father and my father-in-law may be long gone, but it seems I’ve found another inteligent decorator.
It is Really Thirty Years?
When anybody writes the history of the twentieth century in the future, one of the most significant days will be December 8th 1980. It was on this day that John Lennon was murdered in New York.
Lennon was a bit hero of mine and probably still is, as in the 1960s, his attititude was an inspiration to me, as the Beatles showed what could be achieved if you just believed in yourself. I would not have succeeded like I possibly have, without the four musicians from Liverpool.
I was also lucky enough to see them live at the Hammersmith Odeon around Christmas 1964, when several of us from school climbed into my battered Austin 8, for the trip across London. One image of that concert is Lesley Clarke, who was at school with me and in the party, trying to get the girl in front to cut the screaming, as she couldn’t hear anything.
Without the Beatles, I might never have gone to Liverpool, as who would have chosen to go to University in that grim port city in the north?
Liverpoool made me, as I found C there and our first child was conceived in the city.
We both shared a taste for his music, as does or did our sons.
When C died, it was the raw tracks of Lennon’s songs coupled with the haunting ones that Dory Previn created that brought me through.
Now is the day to move completely on. I owe it to C and my son. And to John!
The world must move on too! I would love to see two things die before I do; the death penalty and war.
John and C would have agreed.
It’s Grim Up North!
I am a soft Southerner and a proud Londoner to boot, with the tough genes of a true mongrel. But especially after today’s weather reports from Jockshire, no sane man or woman would want to live north of Cambridge. I might make an exception for Liverpool, as I like my culture to have an edge.
A5 3-Ring Binders
I have hundreds of these and they’re all new.
A5 3-Ring Binder
Anybody who wants them can have them, but they’ll have to be collected from here. Just leave a comment and I’ll contact you!
I’ve now moved and they asre on eBay.
A Most Annoying Advert
I can’t see the television that well in 2-D because of my eye-sight, so one of the most annoying adverts is one for LG proclaiming the virtues of watching 3-D television with someone else which also grates.
So LG has just joined my list of companies whose products I don’t buy!
Is that what advertising is supposed to do? Annoy your possible customers!
When is someone going to produce advert free television? I suppose it’s called the BBC, but what I want to see at the moment is on Sky!
Removing Fence Posts
I have always been an inveterate inventor. At school some of my poorly drawn efforts actually won prizes.
On the stud, we had a lot of what is known as Keepsafe fencing. Unfortunately, the idiots who put the fencing in used poor quality posts that were always rotting. So I developed a device for getting the post out of the ground without too much hard work. I’ve never been a great one for hard phyical work, although the mental stuff is a bit different. Luckily I’ve usually been able to earn enough money to afford to get a man in. Perhaps that’s the Jewish side of my mind, as one of my friends always tells me!
What follows is copy of a post from the stud blog, which shows C using the device to remove a fence by the side of the house. I’m posting it, as one of the photos is one of my favourite ones of my late wife as it sums her up so well.
We had a fence by the side of the house that needed to be removed. The fence was typical post and rail, with the posts buried half a metre into the ground. Luckily they were not embedded into concrete.
At this time, the tool was a few months old and the use had developed so thatyou could use with a high lift jack to remove fence posts without any great fuss or danger. Health and Safety fanatics please note!
As an aside here, just try the normal method of wrapping a chain round the post and then using a tractor to pull the post. This method makes a lot of mess and is very dangerous if the chain breaks.
Fence Post Removal Tool
You start by just dropping the tool over the post, making sure that when it is lifted, it will bite into the post.
Positioning the Tool
Note that there are no moving parts in the tool and it doesn’t need to be adjusted.
Note too, that the post in this example is in pretty good condition. If the post has broken off at the ground as they often do, then all you need to do is dig a perhaps ten centimetres into the ground so that the tool can grip the good part of the post.
The tool is linked to the jack using a shackle with a breaking strain of about a tonne and a half.
Attaching the Jack
Note that the high lift jack is stood on a fence rail to equalise the ground pressure.
The jack is now lifted to pull the post out of the ground.
Lifting the Post
This pull took about a minute and the post came quickly out of the ground. Note C’s ever present Scholl sandals. How Health and Safety!
C did most of the pulling for these posts as it’s actually quicker if someone else (me) holds the post vertically. This just shows how powerful the jack/puller combination is. Even a wimp can pull well over three tonnes!
Virtually Done
Note that little damage is done to the ground and in many cases a new post could be driven firmly into the old hole.
The jack can also be used to lift the heavy gate off its hinges.
Lifting a Gate
This picture shows how easy it is to pull a post in a restricted space.
Pulling in a Restricted Space
The wall wasn’t damaged or even touched.
In the end five fence posts and one gate post were pulled in about half an hour.
A Job Well Done
I will be taking the tool to London, not that I will have any use for it, but surprisingly, the old page gets a few hits and I’m always being asked for drawings or a tool.
So I’m going to publish the drawings on this blog, so that if you want to create one, you can do it. There will only be two conditions.
You must say thank you, if you like what you create.
And as C died of cancer of the heart just a few months after these pictures were taken, with our youngest dying of pancreatic cancer just a few months ago, the next time that a cancer charity tries to tap you for a few pounds, dollars, euros, yen or whatever, then contribute, especially if it is to do with pancreatic cancer research.
I don’t mind if you don’t contribute, because if you don’t, I suspect the Devil who has been haunting me these last few years, might have found another victim and might leave me alone!
The basic drawing is shown and don’t complain about the quality, as it is rather poorly drawn.
Fence Post Removal Tool
Perhaps one day, I’ll get a proper drawing done. There are also some notes to the forge who made the original.
- I haven’t put any dimensions on the side pieces as I will assume that you will use something close to 5 cm. L-section steel. One is upo one way and one the other to give a cutting and leverage effect.
- The endplates can be either flat or L-section. Whichever is easier and/or stronger.
- The only dimensions are that there must be 14 cm. between the ends and the width must be sufficient to allow a post of just under 18 cm. to be lifted.
- The attachment point on the front will have to be pretty strong as the jack can pull up to 3.5 tonnes.
Happy lifting!
A Good Class of Horse!
I’ve mentioned Vague Shot a couple of times in the last week or so, as an exmple to us all on how to cope with the current weather.
He’s actually a pure English thoroughbred, with no trace of suspect American blood. I say suspect, as because they run on drugs over there you don’t know how good they actually are!
He’s also the best and most comfortable horse I’ve ever ridden. He was no flighty horse who’d spook at a heavy lorry, but one who’d pick his way past, whilst giving the driver a stare, that said. if you touch me, your cab will be full of horse-shoe-sized holes. But no-one ever touched him.
But then he’s in that class of horse that old Suffolk horsemen say would have been good enough to fight German tanks with grenades, if they’d ever invaded in the Second World War. The Poles did it, by attacking the tank from several different directions at once. The theory was that one would get through and get a grenade on the tracks or even inside. I’ve heard from several Suffolk sources, that some were prepared to do that. They would have been a lot braver than me. But then you hear all sorts of tales, including one about burning all copies of the Geneva Convention and not abiding with its provisions. Suffolk has a lot of strong trees!
True Suffolk people may well have Iceni DNA in their genes and we all know what Boadica did to invaders.
Crazy Utility Suppliers
My new house has four different suppliers for gas, electricity, telvision/broadband/phones and water, as is fairly typical in the UK.
I’ve now got them sorted, but sometimes you wonder what sort of muppets designed their systems.
- One supplier needs me to sign a contract, but they don’t have any means to send the contract to an address other than that of the property. And as the property has had tenants in it, good knows where the contract went to! I would vote for the rubbish, if my previous experience with tenants is anything to go by.
- One wanted me to sign on on-line for good reasons, but after two hours I gave up, as they kept asking who was my previous supplier, when obviously there wasn’t one. They also said I should phone a particular number, which had a fault. After I’d finished, they asked me to fill in an on-line survey, which I did truthfully. As it didn’t ask for my name, phone number or e-mail address, I doubt I’ll get an apology for the time I wasted.
- The water company were OK, but tried to sell me things I’ve never needed before.
- On a first call, nPower were short and to the point, so after I’d given up on the other energy company, I phoned them back. I did a combined gas and electricity deal, which may not be the cheapest, but it took me just ten minutes on the phone with a salesman who seemed much more competent than the rest combined.. He also informed me that my new house had a prepayment meter and arranged a suitable date for its removal.
It just goes to show that you can win some and lose some.
It would certainly help if some companies had properly designed systems.
A Quick Reply from My MP
Yesterday I wrote to my MP, Matthew Hancock about the Daylight Saving Bill.
Today, I got a signed reply in the post.
He finished the letter with the following statement. “I am fully in support of this bill, and will be voting for it on Friday the 3rd of December.”
i think the swift reply is to everybody’s credit. And especially, the Royal Mail.
Are We All a Load of Softies?
I’m not asking the question, by my stallion is.
Vague Shot in the Snow
Lookm at him here, with his backside into the wind. He’s 27 years old now, which is a good age for a horse, but he is still hale and hearty and he lives out most of the year. At the moment, he does come in at night, but that’s only because of the cold.
One thing, I’ve always wanted to do is put a proper camera on his head, to film what he sees in the fields. As he likes to think he’s protecting his herd, he is always watching for movement. Would the camera catch the deer, foxes and hares that pass through his field?
The Anonymous Widower 