pumpkinstrokemarrow

Couldn't quite bring myself to take them to the tip quite yet. Partly because I remember that a game with the smallest one used to be to whirl it around one's head on the longest possible line. You are out when the thing touches the ground. Requires some strength to keep it up. Clearly a game to be renewed on Stamford Green one fine summer's day.

On 1 March I commented on the apparent loss of my balance when being pushed from MobileWorld to Talkmobile. Pleased to report that, mysteriously, a text message from Talkmobile announced yesterday that my balance from MobileWorld had turned up. The message did not say what the balance was, but my current balance with Talkmobile is more than I put into it at Wilkinsons, so something must have been added. I wonder why it took so long? Has it been hanging around in some sin-bin waiting for some call centre operative to deal with it on a quiet day?

On the other hand, given up on the online version of the senior railcard. No reply to my third email; perhaps reading it was too much of a challenge for the computer that has been delegated to deal with these things. Down to Epsom station and bought the one year version. The person behind the jump did not have any problem with my passport number at all. But, given that the application form included my email address, perhaps I will get some stroppy communication from some control centre enquiring why I have two senior railcards registered to just one email address, in the absence of proper authorisation.

On 14 March I reported on some DIY activity with locks. Well, the day before yesterday, we had some more of the same sort, this time with spectacles. Two of my three pairs of spectacles have spring loaded side arms, which means you get a more positive grip on the head. The catch is that the eye which fixes the arm to the body of the spectacles is not fully part of the arm, rather connected to it by a spring in a box, with this connection being a source of weakness. On the last occasion I lost such a connection I was still at work and far too busy and important to attend to such matters, so stumped up the couple of hundred quid needed for a new pair. Oh no sir. We can't repair something like that. Those spectacles went out of production months ago. On this occasion, a bit more time and energy. Dig around in the box and find and old pair, complete with both arms of the same type. Start off by trying to fit the eye from the wrong old arm into the newer socket. After a while, realise that there is a left hand arm and a right hand arm. Moving over that hurdle, discover that the eye and socket on the newer spectacles are not quite the same as those on the old. So down to the garage and load up FIL's metal work vice into the wood work vice. Out with all the small files from the naval uncle. Fiddle about for maybe an hour and wind up with an old eye which fits the newer socket. Fiddle about for another quarter of an hour and wind up with an old arm fitted into the newer spectacles. The screws for this task are very small and it is quite possible I started off by trying to fit the old screw into the newer hole. All looked the same to me. In fact, quite hard to see them at all on the carpet.

Very impressed with myself. Didn't have to stump up the couple of hundred quid and not many people are going to notice that the two arms on my long range spectacles do not quite match.