The Retirement Thread

[numbnuts]

For Mo
https://www.yaktrax.co.uk/

 

[classic33]

Something like that one on the right.

There's some places don't like you wearing them indoors for some reason.

 

[Tenkaykev]

The cause of Mrs Tenkaykev's train cancellation. Six fire crews attended and the line is now clear.

 

[Mo1959]

Went a wander. Our riverside walk is in some state. Three large trees down, some large branches plus lots of smaller debris. Supposed to be another cold night.

 

[ColinJ]

You probably hadn't noticed my absence, but I have been back in the Dark Ages for 11 hours!

I was doing my usual puzzle session at 04:40 and listening to the wind howling and blowing things around outside. It was actually getting into the house and making the doors creak. I heard one door blow open somewhere in the house! Then suddenly - blackness!

I finished the game that I was on and went to sleep.

The power was still off when I woke up at 10:30 so that meant no heating. It was too bloody chilly to get up so I went back to bed to wait for power to be restored. I played a few more games then decided to phone around and chat to a few people. My pal in Hebden Bridge told me that her part of town still had power, but the Todmorden side was shut down - specifically, the Co-op was shut when she went there.

Then the mobile signal started to go. We tried again a few times and then it died altogether. I could see that I could make emergency calls, so other networks were still available, then they failed too and I was left mobile-less.

My router is mains-powered so that wasn't working and I couldn't go online to check out what was happening. I decided to get out of bed and use the landline to phone my pal on that and get her to search online for news on the power situation. Only... my landline phone is cordless and uses a mains-powered base station, so that was dead too!

I have obviously been negligent in planning for this kind of thing...

Hang on - I kept a corded landline phone somewhere... I eventually tracked that down, plugged it in and... nothing. It has a battery compartment which had no batteries in it. I thought that they were only used to operate the call memory and answer phone, but maybe the phone couldn't work without them. (If so - poor design!) Anyway, no phone!

I decided to catch up on my sleep and went back to bed, dozing and dreaming for hours until I finally woke up at 16:00 with the lights back on - hoo bloody ray!

A big thanks out to the engineers who must have been out in really awful conditions repairing damaged power lines and equipment!

So... now I am trying to warm the house up. It was 10 degrees in here when I finally got up but it has now got to 15.

I am going to have to get organised so I am not hit so hard by future cuts. I have a head torch somewhere. I will keep that next to my bed with a supply of freshly charged batteries, so if all else fails, at least I will be able to read books and do crosswords. I will also have to get that landline working for emergency use.

Anyway, back to the usual banter...

Got dresses in the dark so as no to disturb MrsD.........

Oh, I forgot - this is self-identify-as-a-woman day! Thanks for reminding me, Dave.

Might get back into Bosch. Think I only started series 6 ages ago and it’s on to 7 now.

I got hooked. I have binge-watched the first 3 series and am now halfway through series 4. Very good!

I won't post any spoilers, but I'll just say that his house has a bloody spectacular view! I bet whoever owns the real thing gets plagued by sight-seeing fans now. Ah - I just found THIS ARTICLE about the house.

Your waiting to get your pension I thought it was a requirement before appearing on this site

Nope - I have been on pension-watch here for some time now, scraping by until the glorious day in February 2022 when I will get my first state pension payment!

Just paid my water bill online. £87.00 for 6 months. How exciting is that

Much more exciting than my 9 or 10 monthly payments of £40!

How do you get it so cheap - do you have your own source of water?

Our friends up in Inveran have recently been improving the insulation and sorting out draughts.

As mentioned above, this house is draughty. I know that some of it comes from the cellar. I have blocked up some of the air bricks because it was ridiculously draughty down there, but I can't block them off completely unless I run a dehumidifier 24/7, which would be a nuisance and expensive.

I will have to find out where other draughts are coming from though. The seals round the front and rear doors look iffy so I will replace those in the spring. I also want to take a good look at the pipework out through the bathroom wall. I suspect that there are a few gaps round the pipes. I paid someone to put some mastic round them but I'm not convinced that they did a good job. I'll get my pal to hold the step ladder for me next time she is here. I would have to stand on the platform to get high enough to get a good look.

 

[welsh dragon]

You probably hadn't noticed my absence, but I have been back in the Dark Ages for 11 hours!

I was doing my usual puzzle session at 04:40 and listening to the wind howling and blowing things around outside. It was actually getting into the house and making the doors creak. I heard one door blow open somewhere in the house! Then suddenly - blackness!

I finished the game that I was on and went to sleep.

The power was still off when I woke up at 10:30 so that meant no heating. It was too bloody chilly to get up so I went back to bed to wait for power to be restored. I played a few more games then decided to phone around and chat to a few people. My pal in Hebden Bridge told me that her part of town still had power, but the Todmorden side was shut down - specifically, the Co-op was shut when she went there.

Then the mobile signal started to go. We tried again a few times and then it died altogether. I could see that I could make emergency calls, so other networks were still available, then they failed too and I was left mobile-less.

My router is mains-powered so that wasn't working and I couldn't go online to check out what was happening. I decided to get out of bed and use the landline to phone my pal on that and get her to search online for news on the power situation. Only... my landline phone is cordless and uses a mains-powered base station, so that was dead too!

I have obviously been negligent in planning for this kind of thing...

Hang on - I kept a corded landline phone somewhere... I eventually tracked that down, plugged it in and... nothing. It has a battery compartment which had no batteries in it. I thought that they were only used to operate the call memory and answer phone, but maybe the phone couldn't work without them. (If so - poor design!) Anyway, no phone!

I decided to catch up on my sleep and went back to bed, dozing and dreaming for hours until I finally woke up at 16:00 with the lights back on - hoo bloody ray!

A big thanks out to the engineers who must have been out in really awful conditions repairing damaged power lines and equipment!

So... now I am trying to warm the house up. It was 10 degrees in here when I finally got up but it has now got to 15.

I am going to have to get organised so I am not hit so hard by future cuts. I have a head torch somewhere. I will keep that next to my bed with a supply of freshly charged batteries, so if all else fails, at least I will be able to read books and do crosswords. I will also have to get that landline working for emergency use.

Anyway, back to the usual banter...


Oh, I forgot - this is self-identify-as-a-woman day! Thanks for reminding me, Dave.


I got hooked. I have binge-watched the first 3 series and am now halfway through series 4. Very good!

I won't post any spoilers, but I'll just say that his house has a bloody spectacular view! I bet whoever owns the real thing gets plagued by sight-seeing fans now. Ah - I just found THIS ARTICLE about the house.


Nope - I have been on pension-watch here for some time now, scraping by until the glorious day in February 2022 when I will get my first state pension payment!


Much more exciting than my 9 or 10 monthly payments of £40!

How do you get it so cheap - do you have your own source of water?


As mentioned above, this house is draughty. I know that some of it comes from the cellar. I have blocked up some of the air bricks because it was ridiculously draughty down there, but I can't block them off completely unless I run a dehumidifier 24/7, which would be a nuisance and expensive.

I will have to find out where other draughts are coming from though. The seals round the front and rear doors look iffy so I will replace those in the spring. I also want to take a good look at the pipework out through the bathroom wall. I suspect that there are a few gaps round the pipes. I paid someone to put some mastic round them but I'm not convinced that they did a good job. I'll get my pal to hold the step ladder for me next time she is here. I would have to stand on the platform to get high enough to get a good look.

Hey Colin. We only have water not sewerage. We have a septic tank. That's why it is so low.

 

[ColinJ]

Hey Colin. We only have water not sewerage. We have a septic tank. That's why it is so low.

That's a pretty decent saving!

I could probably save money by getting a water meter put in but then I would start worrying about how much water I used. I don't go crazy with it at the moment, but probably use a little more than I strictly need to.

 

[BoldonLad]

You probably hadn't noticed my absence, but I have been back in the Dark Ages for 11 hours!

I was doing my usual puzzle session at 04:40 and listening to the wind howling and blowing things around outside. It was actually getting into the house and making the doors creak. I heard one door blow open somewhere in the house! Then suddenly - blackness!

I finished the game that I was on and went to sleep.

The power was still off when I woke up at 10:30 so that meant no heating. It was too bloody chilly to get up so I went back to bed to wait for power to be restored. I played a few more games then decided to phone around and chat to a few people. My pal in Hebden Bridge told me that her part of town still had power, but the Todmorden side was shut down - specifically, the Co-op was shut when she went there.

Then the mobile signal started to go. We tried again a few times and then it died altogether. I could see that I could make emergency calls, so other networks were still available, then they failed too and I was left mobile-less.

My router is mains-powered so that wasn't working and I couldn't go online to check out what was happening. I decided to get out of bed and use the landline to phone my pal on that and get her to search online for news on the power situation. Only... my landline phone is cordless and uses a mains-powered base station, so that was dead too!

I have obviously been negligent in planning for this kind of thing...

Hang on - I kept a corded landline phone somewhere... I eventually tracked that down, plugged it in and... nothing. It has a battery compartment which had no batteries in it. I thought that they were only used to operate the call memory and answer phone, but maybe the phone couldn't work without them. (If so - poor design!) Anyway, no phone!

I decided to catch up on my sleep and went back to bed, dozing and dreaming for hours until I finally woke up at 16:00 with the lights back on - hoo bloody ray!

A big thanks out to the engineers who must have been out in really awful conditions repairing damaged power lines and equipment!

So... now I am trying to warm the house up. It was 10 degrees in here when I finally got up but it has now got to 15.

I am going to have to get organised so I am not hit so hard by future cuts. I have a head torch somewhere. I will keep that next to my bed with a supply of freshly charged batteries, so if all else fails, at least I will be able to read books and do crosswords. I will also have to get that landline working for emergency use.

Anyway, back to the usual banter...


Oh, I forgot - this is self-identify-as-a-woman day! Thanks for reminding me, Dave.


I got hooked. I have binge-watched the first 3 series and am now halfway through series 4. Very good!

I won't post any spoilers, but I'll just say that his house has a bloody spectacular view! I bet whoever owns the real thing gets plagued by sight-seeing fans now. Ah - I just found THIS ARTICLE about the house.


Nope - I have been on pension-watch here for some time now, scraping by until the glorious day in February 2022 when I will get my first state pension payment!


Much more exciting than my 9 or 10 monthly payments of £40!

How do you get it so cheap - do you have your own source of water?


As mentioned above, this house is draughty. I know that some of it comes from the cellar. I have blocked up some of the air bricks because it was ridiculously draughty down there, but I can't block them off completely unless I run a dehumidifier 24/7, which would be a nuisance and expensive.

I will have to find out where other draughts are coming from though. The seals round the front and rear doors look iffy so I will replace those in the spring. I also want to take a good look at the pipework out through the bathroom wall. I suspect that there are a few gaps round the pipes. I paid someone to put some mastic round them but I'm not convinced that they did a good job. I'll get my pal to hold the step ladder for me next time she is here. I would have to stand on the platform to get high enough to get a good look.

We are on a water meter. Currently £17/month for 10 payments per year, water and sewerage

 

[ColinJ]

We are on a water meter. Currently £17/month for 10 payments per year, water and sewerage

ColinJ has second thoughts, and reconsiders water meter question!!!



I don't have baths, just 3-5 minute showers. I only use the hose on my bikes for a couple of minutes a week. I can't believe that I would use an extra £20+/month!

 

[Tenkaykev]

You probably hadn't noticed my absence, but I have been back in the Dark Ages for 11 hours!

I was doing my usual puzzle session at 04:40 and listening to the wind howling and blowing things around outside. It was actually getting into the house and making the doors creak. I heard one door blow open somewhere in the house! Then suddenly - blackness!

I finished the game that I was on and went to sleep.

The power was still off when I woke up at 10:30 so that meant no heating. It was too bloody chilly to get up so I went back to bed to wait for power to be restored. I played a few more games then decided to phone around and chat to a few people. My pal in Hebden Bridge told me that her part of town still had power, but the Todmorden side was shut down - specifically, the Co-op was shut when she went there.

Then the mobile signal started to go. We tried again a few times and then it died altogether. I could see that I could make emergency calls, so other networks were still available, then they failed too and I was left mobile-less.

My router is mains-powered so that wasn't working and I couldn't go online to check out what was happening. I decided to get out of bed and use the landline to phone my pal on that and get her to search online for news on the power situation. Only... my landline phone is cordless and uses a mains-powered base station, so that was dead too!

I have obviously been negligent in planning for this kind of thing...

Hang on - I kept a corded landline phone somewhere... I eventually tracked that down, plugged it in and... nothing. It has a battery compartment which had no batteries in it. I thought that they were only used to operate the call memory and answer phone, but maybe the phone couldn't work without them. (If so - poor design!) Anyway, no phone!

I decided to catch up on my sleep and went back to bed, dozing and dreaming for hours until I finally woke up at 16:00 with the lights back on - hoo bloody ray!

A big thanks out to the engineers who must have been out in really awful conditions repairing damaged power lines and equipment!

So... now I am trying to warm the house up. It was 10 degrees in here when I finally got up but it has now got to 15.

I am going to have to get organised so I am not hit so hard by future cuts. I have a head torch somewhere. I will keep that next to my bed with a supply of freshly charged batteries, so if all else fails, at least I will be able to read books and do crosswords. I will also have to get that landline working for emergency use.

Anyway, back to the usual banter...


Oh, I forgot - this is self-identify-as-a-woman day! Thanks for reminding me, Dave.


I got hooked. I have binge-watched the first 3 series and am now halfway through series 4. Very good!

I won't post any spoilers, but I'll just say that his house has a bloody spectacular view! I bet whoever owns the real thing gets plagued by sight-seeing fans now. Ah - I just found THIS ARTICLE about the house.


Nope - I have been on pension-watch here for some time now, scraping by until the glorious day in February 2022 when I will get my first state pension payment!


Much more exciting than my 9 or 10 monthly payments of £40!

How do you get it so cheap - do you have your own source of water?


As mentioned above, this house is draughty. I know that some of it comes from the cellar. I have blocked up some of the air bricks because it was ridiculously draughty down there, but I can't block them off completely unless I run a dehumidifier 24/7, which would be a nuisance and expensive.

I will have to find out where other draughts are coming from though. The seals round the front and rear doors look iffy so I will replace those in the spring. I also want to take a good look at the pipework out through the bathroom wall. I suspect that there are a few gaps round the pipes. I paid someone to put some mastic round them but I'm not convinced that they did a good job. I'll get my pal to hold the step ladder for me next time she is here. I would have to stand on the platform to get high enough to get a good look.

The expanding foam in an Aerosol is very good indeed. I filled holes through the wall in the kitchen that the old plumbing went through. Once it dries you can trim the excess with a sharp knife or a saw. Try it out first as it can expand a lot more than you think.
Something like this should do the trick:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-rapid-set-expanding-foam-hand-held-750ml/20958

 

[BoldonLad]

ColinJ has second thoughts, and reconsiders water meter question!!!



I don't have baths, just 3-5 minute showers. I only use the hose on my bikes for a couple of minutes a week. I can't believe that I would use an extra £20+/month!

If you are not on a meter, you are not being billed on your actual usage, you are being billed on the basis of the rateable value of the property in which you live.

 

[classic33]

You probably hadn't noticed my absence, but I have been back in the Dark Ages for 11 hours!

I was doing my usual puzzle session at 04:40 and listening to the wind howling and blowing things around outside. It was actually getting into the house and making the doors creak. I heard one door blow open somewhere in the house! Then suddenly - blackness!

I finished the game that I was on and went to sleep.

The power was still off when I woke up at 10:30 so that meant no heating. It was too bloody chilly to get up so I went back to bed to wait for power to be restored. I played a few more games then decided to phone around and chat to a few people. My pal in Hebden Bridge told me that her part of town still had power, but the Todmorden side was shut down - specifically, the Co-op was shut when she went there.

Then the mobile signal started to go. We tried again a few times and then it died altogether. I could see that I could make emergency calls, so other networks were still available, then they failed too and I was left mobile-less.

My router is mains-powered so that wasn't working and I couldn't go online to check out what was happening. I decided to get out of bed and use the landline to phone my pal on that and get her to search online for news on the power situation. Only... my landline phone is cordless and uses a mains-powered base station, so that was dead too!

I have obviously been negligent in planning for this kind of thing...

Hang on - I kept a corded landline phone somewhere... I eventually tracked that down, plugged it in and... nothing. It has a battery compartment which had no batteries in it. I thought that they were only used to operate the call memory and answer phone, but maybe the phone couldn't work without them. (If so - poor design!) Anyway, no phone!

I decided to catch up on my sleep and went back to bed, dozing and dreaming for hours until I finally woke up at 16:00 with the lights back on - hoo bloody ray!

A big thanks out to the engineers who must have been out in really awful conditions repairing damaged power lines and equipment!

So... now I am trying to warm the house up. It was 10 degrees in here when I finally got up but it has now got to 15.

I am going to have to get organised so I am not hit so hard by future cuts. I have a head torch somewhere. I will keep that next to my bed with a supply of freshly charged batteries, so if all else fails, at least I will be able to read books and do crosswords. I will also have to get that landline working for emergency use.

Anyway, back to the usual banter...


Oh, I forgot - this is self-identify-as-a-woman day! Thanks for reminding me, Dave.


I got hooked. I have binge-watched the first 3 series and am now halfway through series 4. Very good!

I won't post any spoilers, but I'll just say that his house has a bloody spectacular view! I bet whoever owns the real thing gets plagued by sight-seeing fans now. Ah - I just found THIS ARTICLE about the house.


Nope - I have been on pension-watch here for some time now, scraping by until the glorious day in February 2022 when I will get my first state pension payment!


Much more exciting than my 9 or 10 monthly payments of £40!

How do you get it so cheap - do you have your own source of water?


As mentioned above, this house is draughty. I know that some of it comes from the cellar. I have blocked up some of the air bricks because it was ridiculously draughty down there, but I can't block them off completely unless I run a dehumidifier 24/7, which would be a nuisance and expensive.

I will have to find out where other draughts are coming from though. The seals round the front and rear doors look iffy so I will replace those in the spring. I also want to take a good look at the pipework out through the bathroom wall. I suspect that there are a few gaps round the pipes. I paid someone to put some mastic round them but I'm not convinced that they did a good job. I'll get my pal to hold the step ladder for me next time she is here. I would have to stand on the platform to get high enough to get a good look.

Went off around 01:00 here, been on and off since. Currently on, but who knows how long for. I take it you were fast asleep/out like the lights when the flood sirens went off. Hopefully it was due to the power outages, nothing else.

Did you not think of using your bike lights? Are were they dead as well.

The nearest mobile mast went down when the electric went the first time. All bar O2 were/are on that mast. O2 stand alone round these parts.

 

[ColinJ]

I take it you were fast asleep/out like the lights when the flood sirens went off.

I didn't hear any sirens, so if they went off here - yes!

Did you not think of using your bike lights? Are were they dead as well.

I keep a damaged bike light by my bed so I was able to use that. (I had previously dropped the light and destroyed the lens, but it works ok for an emergency reading light.) I went and got my good light to keep in reserve.

I have got my headtorch handy now as well. I am carrying it around with me in case the lights go out again suddenly.

The nearest mobile mast went down when the electric went the first time. All bar O2 were/are on that mast. O2 stand alone round these parts.

I reckon that the masts will have emergency battery power to last them a few hours, but not generators. That would explain why the signal was ok for a few hours and then died. IIRC, telephone exchanges DO have generators, so they should keep going through powercuts.

 

[classic33]

I didn't hear any sirens, so if they went off here - yes!


I keep a damaged bike light by my bed so I was able to use that. (I had previously dropped the light and destroyed the lens, but it works ok for an emergency reading light.) I went and got my good light to keep in reserve.

I have got my headtorch handy now as well. I am carrying it around with me in case the lights go out again suddenly.


I reckon that the masts will have emergency battery power to last them a few hours, but not generators. That would explain why the signal was ok for a few hours and then died. IIRC, telephone exchanges DO have generators, so they should keep going through powercuts.

I've a feeling you weren't alone in being in the dark this morning.

The nearby mast is the most exposed, that can be connected to. The lie of the land prevents Withens, the most exposed being available.

 

[Juan Kog]

Water meter , we’re still waiting. About 2 1/2 years ago we had a letter from the water company followed by a surveyor, he sprayed a blue cross on our stopcock cover which is on our street boundary. He then spotted another stopcock cover in the middle of our lawn . By this time I had taken against his you’ve got to have a meter like or not attitude. He said what’s that for ,me I dunno your the expert .
So this morning another letter from the water company, expect a visit from a representative of our company.
@ColinJ I keep several head torches round the house, but with single use batteries. Rechargeable batteries do discharge more quickly than disposables.