The car week.

There are things one puts off and although you keep telling yourself that you will tackle the job tomorrow or maybe next week, you never seem to get round to doing it.

This was exactly what I have been practising for the last two years, the job, polishing the car!

On Monday morning after breakfast ( it was a lovely day) I decided to polish the car. The job took me just over two and a half hours , the car was looking good (see photo) and I was feeling great. I then give the inside of the car a good going over and afterwards I couldn’t understand why I had put the job off for so long.

On Wednesday afternoon we went and did our weekly shopping. Afterwards I drove to the locale garden centre. On parking my car I had a funny feeling, couldn’t put my finger on it but it was there. I found what I was looking for and on my way to the cash register I realised I had left my money in the car. On my way to the car I saw this women looking at my car and writing something on a piece of paper. I asked her if there was something wrong with my car, she said, “ The car that was parked next to you had on leaving scraped the side of your car and drove off”. Now this is in Germany is classified as hit and run and can cost you your driving licence plus a heavy fine.

At this moment the driver of the other car (a older women) appeared and started to argue with the women that was talking to me. Her remarks were, “what the hell was she doing, it was none of her business, and she wasn’t driving off just re-parking her car”.

Well to cut the story short, this old dear insisted that she was not aware that she had even touched my car and only came back to see what the fuss was about. I showed her the damage she had caused, on this her reply was “there is no damage on my car”. It was tit for tat for a while until I said “ I would call the police” and that my brother was a police inspector (only kidding) On inspecting her car we found that it was also scratched badly on the right rear wing. Anyway there were no police involved, no insurance, she would pay cash. I drove to the garage got an estimate, drove round to her house picked up my money and that was that. Most of the scratches I have got rid of with a special polishing paste and the money I have put in my wallet.

On Friday I changed my summer tyres for my winter ones because they say that we are going to have a cold spell next week and I have to go to work on Tuesday. So all in all you can call this week A CAR WEEK.

Take care out there were ever you are. TshüssJust a snap shot taken from our window

A walk on Sunday in autumn.

The start in the week was taken up with setting up the program Face-book; my wife had convinced me that it was something I should at least try instead of just knocking it. I must admit I’m not as enthusiastic as my wife but you never know it may happen (smile).

On Friday morning my brother and I linked up with Skype and had a good natter for a about a hour we both got mixed up with the time because they had put the clock forwards one hour in NZ and I didn’t know that. So here I was all set up ready and waiting and my brother was offline, had to telephone him to say I was waiting. In the afternoon we went into Düsseldorf to do some shopping my wife and I bought our self’s each a thick fleece jacket for the winter also I bought a pair of shoes. Most of the week the weather was glories and it looks like it’s going to last into the middle of this week, so we decided that Saturday would be a day in the garden getting it ready for the winter. We moved a few plants around (like always) and removed a large grass that had got too big for our garden and made a new flower bed were it had stood, also cut back a few bushes. In between I went to the garden centre all in all it took me the best part of the day and I knew at the end of the day what I had done.

This morning I was out of the house at ten past seven on my bike armed with my camera hoping to get some good photos, the mist hung over the fields but the light was not good because the sky was overcast and it didn’t clear up till the early afternoon. Around four we got ourselves ready and went for a long walk with the dog. The sun had come out and it was a lovely afternoon blue sky’s and very mild. There were lots of folks also out enjoying the fine weather.

Tonight is the film The Da Vinci Code on TV, I have read the book and I’m looking forwards to watching the film, if it’s as good as the book was then it will be an enjoyable evening.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

The photos I took on our walk this afternoon.

A small thing like a kitchen sink.

Now one would think for a normal handyman (and I think I can call myself one) that changing a kitchen sink unit in a fitted kitchen wouldn’t be a big problem!

On Saturday my wife and I decided to drive to the local do it yourself super market to buy a new kitchen sink unit. We had been talking about replacing the old sink for quite some considerable time. After no luck at the first store, they had a large assortment but the one’s that came into consideration were too cheap (we was looking for one that was going to last us a few years.)

On the way home we decided to do a detour and check out another DIY. Well it didn’t take us long to find one in our price range and also my wife liked it (which is always good.)

The weather turned out to be extremely bad on Sunday, it started to rain around eight and rained all day and all night into late Monday morning. My Sunday run was in the rain, not that I mind, you can only get drenched once.

After getting back from my run I told my wife I would fit the new sink in after lunch seeing that the weather was so bad and there was no sign of it getting any better.

I started at half past one, first taking all the drainage pipes apart, then came the most tricky part, you see we have a warm water boiler (electric low pressure) under the sink and the tap has five connections and also the dishwasher is also attached to the tap (that’s what I meant by being tricky.) After mastering all that all I had to do was take the dishwasher out from underneath the worktop because the draining board side of the sink is placed over the dishwasher.

Now the problems started to develop, I could not get the dishwasher out from underneath the workingtop. No matter what I tried it wouldn’t move a millimetre. The people that had put the kitchen in for us had fitted it so tight (putting it in before the work top was fitted.) that I was unable to move it

There was no way I could get at the clamps that hold the sink in place without moving the dishwasher; I finally came to the conclusion that all my work was in vain and because there was no way in which I could remove the work top seeing that it has three sides to it and they are all fitted and glued together.

There was nothing more I could do but to put every bloody thing back together, fighting the frustration while doing so. I was sorry for my wife she had looked forwards to a new sink and I could see she was disappointed.

On the good note I hadn't destroyed any of the packaging and on Monday morning I was able to return the sink and gett my money back (110 Euros.)

What does one learns from this? check every possibility what could go wrong before tackling the job.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

Indian summer.

The last week has been a very quite week nothing seems to have happed that is worth mentioning. Apart that on Wednesday afternoon I visited my friend, the three hours that I was there just flew by, the conversation was good and the topics that we discussed were interesting. It was nice to see him is own self again, seeing that he was a little bit down lately over one thing and another.

Weather wise it has been a super week a real Indian summer, blue sky’s and very little wind the temperature were around 20 degrees but late in the afternoon it became chilly, one couldn’t go out with out a pullover.

On Thursday afternoon my wife and I went for along walk with our dog. The walk took us through the near by woods the weather was perfect and what with our in between rests on the park benches to take the scenery in, our walk lasted over two hours. When we arrived home my wife was complaining that her knee was hurting her so we put a ice pack on it and it seemed to help but I’m afraid that we won’t be able to do long walks till this treatment that she is having is completed.

I’ve been running twice a week on a regular basis for over a month now, on Sundays I run ten km and in the middle of the week fifteen it’s improved my condition considerable and I hope to keep it up has long as I can.

I wrote last week in my post about my wife and this program Face-Book, well the friend she is in touch with in France seems to be a real nice person and I’m pleased for my wife. I may add I have a feeling that it could develop into a good friendship with time.

On Friday it’s a public holiday over here in Germany, it’s to celebrate the reunion of West and East Germany as a whole nation. All I can add to that is that it has cost us (the tax payer) a lot of money and we are still paying. At the start it was only for five years and it’s now we are in to the twentieth and it looks like the is no end.

The photo I took when I was having a walk round the lake near were we live.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss