Latest Moan From You and Me 2024

Ah, good old Slurrey County Council with their permits again. They've worked their magic around our way this week too.... Staines Road West (A308) has a lane closed (red dot on map below) which results in peak hour queues of up to a mile on the approach to the crossroads at School Road. This will be in place until at least the end of this week. The way around it, particularly for all the staff going to BP headquarters is to go via Felthamhill Road (purple route on map) and miss it all.

Yesterday, Slurrey County Council contractors rocked up and.. you guessed it.. they closed Felthamhill Road to do some work on some speed humps down there. I found out when I headed out to work and discovered a bus sat on the roundabout (one of the buses from the company I work for) where the green dot is, with a thoroughly perplexed driver as they'd simply rocked up and shut the road in between the previous bus and him (so within 20 mins); I had to help him reverse and get out of it to divert the other way.

 

Sort of rounding off a previous moan here... today, Virgin Media came out (again) to fix our internet. The engineers that attended were actually really good and went just that little bit further down the rabbit-hole to try and work out what the trouble actually was. They worked out that our signal was absolutely bob-on, right up to the outside of our house... so they wanted to check inside. Long story short, they decided to replace the cable (so I took the opportunity to have it relocated, which suited them as it was a much easier place for them to work with, and suited me for similar reasons) and they lobbed a new hub at us. It connected pretty much instantly, whereas the old one would take about 10 minutes, and the speed was also instantly double what we've been seeing for months. Finally, it seems to be fixed!

Not bad - only four months...

 

Am I allowed a belated moan??? Thanks...

A week past on Saturday, we went up into the loft to tidy it and to measure up to top up the loft insulation and ended up buying four rolls of insulation (we already had one roll already sitting up there, just waiting to be put out), so Saturday past we went back up to get those four rolls laid. The main issue in our house was over the bathroom where there was some bits of absolutely zero insulation and even where there was some, it was thin. As we were going to bring it up to double thickness (circa 400mm) I also wanted to fit the proper covers over the downlights to make sure there was no fire risk - - but, the location of the bathroom is right next to the loft hatch, so I couldn't get to the lights 'straight on' because I would have fallen down the hatch.. so I had to go at them at an angle from the other side. In doing so, I gave my back a right good twanging, so it was hurting like hell and even right down my right leg to behind my knee - so we continued and finished the job, getting me out of the loft whilst I was still moving...

After tidying up and having a shower, I headed downstairs. Around the bottom quarter, my right leg sort of wobbled, shot off the step with me going down like a sack of spuds.. only, my left leg resolutely refused to follow and simply folded, so now all my weight (and I am not exactly slim!) was on my left arm on the banister.. my left hand hit the top of the newel post at the bottom stopping me with one hell of a bang, swinging me around the post (left leg now being dragged) and I stopped when I hit the floorstanding speaker on the other side of the newel post.

To say I have been in pain ever since is an understatement, although thankfully it is starting to get easier this evening, with a bit more mobility.

I don't know if there is a moral to the story here - - if anything, I can say it has been worth spending the money to top up the insulation.

 

Eh? That's just bonkers
Russia fines Google more than entire world's GDP

 

It's also laughable.

I think I shall fine Google that sum as well.

 

Good idea, me too

 

I've just received in the mail a missive from the NHS saying there is going to be a National Conversation on the future of the NHS. These will be held all over the country.

Sounds good but there's a little bit of a catch.

They're offering £175 to take part and the people able to take part will be chosen by lottery from those registering interest. Not a bad idea.

They say the group will broadly represent the entire community. I'm not sure they can claim that if it is done by lottery. Maybe they would have been better to leave that part out.

There will be an online two hour evening meeting the week prior to the in person day for discussion. Offline options will be available.

For our area the in person meeting (10am - 4pm with a lunch break) is an hour and a half away if the traffic is favourable. "If you are selected, we will contact you by text and email to let you know." So I asked them what happens if the person doesn't have email or a mobile phone? Whoops! No real idea.

I only received it this afternoon and they want the answer within three days.

 

Don't say that!!! Otherwise I won't get my money.