My Daily Walk

 I'm not really into making New Year resolutions but I have decided to do a bit more walking, as I'm getting older I would like to keep up some exercise every day to keep fit.

Today I walked down to the Quay in Newport a total of about 5000 steps so I was pretty happy with that. The quay area is very interesting to look at and you can imagine how much of a major bustling busy area it must have been years ago.

At the moment it is undergoing some renovations and there is talk of spending millions of pounds here in the future to develop it.

Here is a video I took.

Sour Dough Bread

 Has anyone else tried making sour dough bread? After tasting some that our eldest son had made when we visited him over Christmas we thought we would give it a try.

It involves making a starter which is a mix of flour and water which s kept in a jar and then fed with more to get it active and grow in size, this is then used in place of yeast.

I won't go into all the details on making it here but anyone reading this who want's to give it a go I shall be happy to pass them along.

The first two we made I have to admit were on the heavy side especially the second one but out latest effort today has turned out pretty good if I say so myself.

2022 and time for a new start

 2022 and time for a new start, after two years away I have decided to resurrect this blog and hopefully start to provide some regular updates.

I always enjoy listening to live music and generally go to listen to a band at one of my local pubs either at The Crispin or more likely at the Castle Inn  

Tonight there is a Duo called Switch

I have just been setting up a new web site to provide a Gig Guide for the Isle of Wight it can be found here iow-gig-guide.co.uk I would encourage anyone who sees this to submit dates of future events. I also hope to expand this in the future with details, photos and videos of band and individuals playing in the Isle of Wight.

Cataract operation

For a long time, the sight in my left eye has been deteriorating to the point that if I closed my right eye and looked through my left one only everything looked cloudy and I had difficulty even making out features on peoples faces.

I went for an examination for new glass earlier in the year and was told I had a quite thick cataract on my left eye and was referred to my local hospital.

I had an appointment and examination in late August and finally had a date for it to be done this week.

I went into the hospital on Tuesday morning at 8am and had it done under local anaesthetic, I was discharged at about 12.30.

Everything went perfectly, I can honestly say there was no pain whatsoever just a little discomfort and would encourage anyone who needs this and is worried or nervous about having it done not to be.
My distance eyesight is just about perfect now and I have had no after-effects whatsoever, I have to put drops in for about 2-3 weeks.

Here is a link to a good video showing it being done https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHMW6KvSyfc&t=177s

Time to make some Sloe Gin

Well, It's a pretty lousy day today with rain pouring down and generally miserable so no work outside for me today.

I picked a load of Sloe berries early in the Autumn and have had them in the freezer ever since waiting for me to get around to using them. Although It's not essential, it is a good idea to freeze them first of all, this is to rupture the fruit to let the liquid seep out, I tend to prick them as well to get the maximum effect.

Making Sloe gin is fairly easy and there are many recipes and old wives tales on how it should be made however this is how I make it and I've never had a failure yet!

I use a 1.5lt Kilner jar and fill it to about a third full of sloes then add about half the quantity of caster sugar then fill the jar to the very top with gin. Vodka and Brandy can also be used as alternatives and make a very nice liqueur.

You need to keep shaking the jar for a few days until the sugar is fully dissolved then put the jar away in a dark place for at least 3 months.

Strain the juice through muslin to just leave the liqueur before drinking......Hmmm Lovely!

  

Re-Roofing, disposing of old asbestos/cement slates

Asbestos/cement slates have actually got quite a low quantity of asbestos in them but I always knew it wasn't going to be cheap disposing of them after I renewed my roof.

To help others here are so cost comparisons I did to find the cheapest means.

I rang up 3 skip companies for quotes and also my local council. First of all, I needed to know the weight? as I had bought 600 slates for renewal it seemed obvious that I must have taken off the equivalent, so by weighing one of them and multiplying by 600 I came up with an approximate weight of 750 kgs or about 3/4 of a ton.

The first company that I telephoned gave me what I thought was a ridiculous price of over £2000, although they did advise me to go elsewhere for a quote and gave me the name of another firm.

I rang the other firm who gave me a price of around £750 however they did need me to double bag them all in heavy-duty plastic.

I rang a third company that would let me just put them in a skip without bagging them up and they quoted me £825.

All of these quotes were more than I was expecting so I finally rang my local council who told me that, first of all, I would need to get from them an asbestos permit and that all the slates would need to be double-bagged in addition I would need to transport them myself to the local recycling centre. They said they would allow me 60kgs free of charge and everything over would be charged at 36p per kg.
So a possible cost of around £250. Although I will have to double bag the slates and get them to the recycling centre this the option I am taking. It also means I can do it in my own time.

AS you can see there are some huge differences in the costs so it pays to ring around for quotes.

Here is a photo of the finished job after my re-roofing plus an old photo of the bungalow taken from Google street view how it looked before I started all the work.

Thomas Cook and Sunshine holidays

Two days before the collapse of Thomas Cook I had booked a holiday to Majorca through Sunshine holidays that used Thomas Cook airlines!

I wasn't too worried about it other than not being able to go away as I knew my payment was safe as it would be covered by ATOL plus I had paid by credit card and would have been covered by the card company as well.

However, I am more than impressed with Sunshine Holidays and will certainly be using them again in the future.
The morning after the collapse I had an email from Sunshine holidays informing me I would be getting a full refund on my credit card immediately, this was back in my account within two days. In addition, they gave me a £75 credit as compensation towards another holiday.

Outstanding service!