Wax.

Our living room furniture is made out of Oak (not veneered) but solid and needs now and then to be waxed to keep it from splitting or cracking. Now this is a very tidies job using hard bee wax, rubbing it in and then polishing it afterwards.
We have found a new wax, which up till now we had never heard of it, is called Carnauba wax and a local joiner introduced it to us. I have used it on nearly all the living room furniture and it is amazing, no hard work just applying it with a soft cloth then waiting till it dries and then polishing it off with a soft duster. (The result is amazing)
He also give us some Marseiller Soap for floors and tiles. (see information below)
The weather here is still cold but must of the snow has gone and the forecast is wet and windy for the next few days.
I had the chance to go to England on Saturday for a day (shopping trip) with my friend Colin and a friend of his. My boss gave me a ring on Wednesday morning asking me if I could come on Saturday morning and check out 25 new cutting dies that had been ordered for our company in Hungary. Now what could I say? This order is a very important one because of the world wide economic situation and our company in Hungary is suffering badly because of it.
Today Friday my boss called me again and told me that there had been a change of plans and I don’t have to appear on Saturday!!!
I have just rung Colin to tell him, he asked “ did that mean I was going with them” because they had also changed their plans and are setting off around two in the morning. I declined (smile) to early for me; there is always another time because they plan to go twice a year.
Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

The photo, something that caught my eye, I call it, " winter break".

Carnauba wax
Carnauba is a wax derived from the leaves of the carnauba palm, Copernicia prunifera, a plant native to and grown only in the northeastern Brazilian states of Piauí, Ceará, and Rio Grande do Norte.] It is known as "queen of waxes" and usually comes in the form of hard yellow-brown flakes. It is obtained from the leaves of the carnauba palm by collecting them, beating them to loosen the wax, then refining and bleaching the wax.
Marseille soap
Marseille soap or Savon de Marseille is a traditional soap made from vegetable oils that has been made around Marseille, France, for about 700 years, the first recorded soapmaker in the area in about 1370. By 1688, Louis XIV introduced regulations (Edict of Colbert) limiting the use of the name savon de Marseille to soaps made in and around the Marseille area, and only from olive oil. Today this law still stands (although the regulations now allow other vegetable oils to be used).
By 1913 production had reached 180,000 tons and in 1924 there were 132 soapmaking companies in the Marseille and Salon areas combined, but by 2000 only 5 remained[citation needed].
Traditionally, the soap is made by mixing sea water from the Mediterranean Sea, olive oil, and the alkaline chemicals soda ash (sodium carbonate) and lye (sodium hydroxide) together in a large cauldron (usually making about 8 tons). This mixture is then heated for several days, stirred constantly. The mixture is then allowed to sit, and once ready, it is poured into the mould, and allowed to set slightly. Whilst still soft, it is cut into bars and stamped, and left to completely harden. The whole process can take up to a month from the start before the soap is ready to use.
Today, there are two main varieties of this soap, both are made in the same process, but one is made with olive oil and the second is made with palm oil or a palm and copra oil mixture. The olive oil variety is green and the palm oil variety is white in colour. The bars usually come in sizes between 300g and 1 kg; however, larger sizes are often available, some up to 40kg (originally, they only came in 5 kg and 20 kg blocks).
The soap is also widely used in Italy, where it is known as sapone di Marsiglia.

Short story’s of past incidents in my army life (funny and sometimes sad)

Having been so nicely woken up by the duty sergeant my first worry was were do I go for a wash!! Lucky for me I met some guys in the hallway (they had been in the army a week and knew the ropes so to say).
After having a wash with twenty to thirty other fellows, (which is weird at first) I got my bedding together and returned it to the QM stores. This guy in the stores wasn’t the same guy who issued me with the bedding, his first question was “last four” I didn’t have clue what he meant and I told him so, he explained my last four were the last four numbers of my army number which I would get to know when we got issued with our army kit.
This guy was kind enough to lend me a mug and knife fork and spoon so that I could go for breakfast. Now that is a experience, that one does not forget. I reckon there must have been over one hundred squaddis in the cookhouse and I think I was the only one in civvies and of course I stood out like a sore thumb.
After breakfast I returned to the room were I had spent the night, a corporal came in asked me my name ticked it off on a list which he had with him then told me to stay were I was because during the morning the rest of the squad would turn up.
By midday the most of the new guy’s had arrived and for us all it was a very unusual situation, everybody was asking each other different questions A corporal came into the room and told us to get out side and form three ranks and to keep our mouth shut in doing so, that’s were we was introduced to our Sergeant and the two corporals who would be training us for the next ten weeks. Their names were Sgt. Thomson. Corporal Hinten and Hipwood.

To be continued.