Weekly Roundup – 3/1/12 – 8/1/12

Tuesday

Up early and went for a swim. Only 750m today, still doing some drills and skills to try and get my swimming stroke more efficient (I can heartily recommend ‘Total Immersion‘ if you’re wanting to improve your swim – it’s a great book).

Into the office for the first day of 2012. I get the feeling if I write anything about work on here it’ll get me into trouble, so I’m not going to.

Kids were still off so Michelle had tea waiting for when I got home. (Thankyou!).  Time for Harry Potter 3 this evening.

Wednesday

No swim this morning – into the office, home and then some more reading and kids running around preparing for their first day back at school tomorrow. Had a great email discussion and started reading a recommended book (Zen Mind, Beginners Mind) which is very interesting. The wind was seriously strong this evening – the airfield 6 miles away from us recorded averages of 45-50mph with peaks of 65mph. Eek! You could hear the tiles on the roof rattling through the night.

Thursday

Up early again this morning and off the pool. Something clicked this morning and the 1000m swim was easier than it’s ever been before. I only stopped swimming because I ran out of time and needed to be in the office!

After work, I stopped off to pick up the kids and then home. Michelle was late home due to working offsite today, so it was a reading and TV evening.

Friday

First icy morning for a while this morning. Haven’t had to scrape the cars off for ages. Into the office. Missed lunch due to conference calls timed for lunchtime, so I survived on a diet of Oat So Simple and Bananas. Made up for it when we got home and I cooked Sausage, Egg and Chips for tea. Yum

Onto Harry Potter 4 during which I dipped out to have a phone conversation with my mate about some diving we’re planning.

Saturday

Up and out on the bike this morning (see this post for details!) Back home, some time tidying the garage so Michelle can use the treadmill, then indoors and updated this blog a little bit. Then a bit of meditation at home whilst the girls are out horseriding, during which I get regularly interrupted by the cat jumping on top of and curling up on my crossed legs! Just don’t put your claws in, cat.

Yum – a nice bacon and sausage sandwich for lunch (you don’t have to be a vegetarian) and some more tidying before the kids requested we watched *another* Harry Potter movie (Harry Potter 5 this time – only 3 left!)

Once that was done I quickly nipped to the Co-Op to pick up some Creme Fraiche and Parmesan, and then I made a lovely Nigel Slater Chicken Risotto. this link is a variant and quite close to the one I make – I use Vermouth (Dry Martini) initially with the butter and onions to fry the rice prior to adding the first bit of stock. Then I add Creme Fraiche at the same time as the Parmesan once the rice is cooked, a couple of minutes before serving, but essentially it’s very similar. If you do a roast chicken on a sunday, you can use the carcass to make the stock on the sunday night, ready to make this on the Monday night – I just used some sliced and pan fried chicken breasts.

Sunday

In the car and off to Castle Howard for a nice walk through the grounds this morning. Went to the front of the house and up the hill into Ray’s Wood and then through the wood and down to the lake. Kids played in the adventure playground for a bit and then we went to the boathouse cafe for a cup of tea and a nice cake.

Once we’d wandered back past the house to the main entrance complex, we stopped at the Farm Shop to get some nice food for the freezer, then hopped in the car to make our way home. Saw lots of road cyclists out on the way to Sherriff Hutton – nice day for it as there’s very little wind. Stopped off at the Supermarket at Monks Cross for some essentials, and then carried on round the ring road and picked up a new light from B&Q for the dining room.

Around 12 months ago the downlights in our dining room went pop one morning. They were already up when we moved in, and they had been fine since then. I’d put MCB devices in the garage and turning the light on created a big pop, and the MCB tripped. Hmm. So I reset the MCB and still none of the lights in the dining room worked. Flipping the power off again, I took the fitting down to have a look, and it looked like the transformer that powered the silly little LED’s that were on the base of the lamp had gone pop. Lots of scorching – didn’t look good. Meh.

So I went to B&Q and bought one of these – Atria 3-Light – it looked reasonable for the cost and I didn’t mind energy saving bulbs as they usually last for ages. But I was stupid and didn’t realise it was energy saving bulbs ONLY. And  I didn’t realise when you switch it on it took around 20 minutes to come to full brightness (yep – 20 minutes!) It seemed OK until November 2011 when in short sequence, all three bulbs failed – all less than 12 months old. When I got to B&Q to get some more bulbs (that you can only get from there) I had a chat with a lady who was filling up the stock in the light aisle and she said it was because they packed the lights with starter bulbs and they don’t last that long. That’s bollocks – nowhere on the packaging does it say that – and I’d never heard that before, but I bought three more bulbs for the lamp as it’s winter and the lights are used alot!

Christmas Day, one of the new bulbs started to fail (it would intermittantly work and not work), and then a second one started to fail this week. At this point, I’ve had enough. I can’t find the receipt but to be honest, I don’t want it fixed and they’ll be unlikely to replace it. I’m not buying more bulbs just to put in a doomed light! So I stopped off and bought a new fitting that took both normal (up to 50W) GU10 lamps along with energy saving ones. It’s now fitted and the old one’s in the bin So buyer beware – those B&Q Energy Saving GU10 fittings and bulbs don’t save you money and have a very short lifespan. Oh – I can also recommend the 4.5W Osram LED GU10 lights – they are just as bright as a 50W Halogen bulb and have a 25 year lifespan. Although costly at £11 per bulb, they are brill.