Posts Tagged ‘Work’
Posted by Shirley Anne on April 27, 2013
Earthing wire
I’ve been rather busy this past week with my electrical work leaving quite a few people happy with what I have done for them. I get paid of course but it is nice to know my work is appreciated and I enjoy it. On Thursday I had a couple of jobs to do in the morning but the first one presented me with a bit of a dilemma and it took more time than I had anticipated. The work involved doing three small jobs, bathroom lights not working, problems with a shower and replace a light in the kitchen. The first two were very straightforward and I had them both done in fifteen minutes but the third one I couldn’t do as I had been asked. The guy had purchased a new fluorescent light fitting but when I removed the old one I discovered there was no earthing wire, in fact none of the lighting circuits in the house had earthing wires as the house had been wired prior to 1967 when it was built and hadn’t been rewired since. Not only that but the wiring in the kitchen was faulty and had somehow been disconnected from the supply. Evidently the previous fitting had ‘blown’ the connections, wherever they may have been for it was obviously wired from a junction box somewhere under the floorboards upstairs in the bathroom. The bathroom had been refurbished some time ago and had ceramic tiles on the floor! This made it impossible to gain access to the wiring. I told the guy that current regulations prevented me from installing his new light because of the lack of an earthing wire. I get this fairly often and have to refuse the work. People just do not know if their wiring is suitable for the installation of new light fittings which often need to be earthed. I presented him with some options, one, return the fitting and buy another, two, allow me to rewire the kitchen light if I could locate another junction box beneath the floor or three, leave the light and have a total rewire of the lighting system. I assured him that I was confident of the location of another junction box but he had doubts. Eventually he made the decision to temporarily rewire the light with a view to going for a total rewire after discussions with his wife. I found the junction box where I had suspected it would be and he gave me a look of surprise which acknowledged my experience. At least his kitchen is once more illuminated at night! Naturally I was paid the extra for my efforts. I went on to my next job where the lady had asked me to replace a light with another and if it was possible reposition the light switch which was now located behind the door! She had the door re-hung on the opposite side to accommodate new furniture she had bought. That meant a trip into the loft (attic) to re-route the cable supplying the switch and guess where the access panel was? Part-way over the stairs! What idiot designed that? No matter I was able to do the job after a bit of a struggle but when I had finished you would not know that I had been there! Whilst at that job I was called to do another which was to simply replace one light fitting for another in a beauty parlour nearer to home. I had that done in no time at all. On the way back home I received a phone call, which I took as I have a hands-free system in the van. It was from a company offering an Internet service for businesses and trades. I rather enjoyed the chat with the young guy at the other end of the line but he wouldn’t take ‘no’ as an answer when I kept repeating that I didn’t need his company’s services. I told him that I was now only working part-time and had enough work coming my way as it was. Twenty years ago I might have gone that route but I am way past that now. You might be thinking well why do I do so much when I am supposed to be working part-time? The answer to that is I work full-time some days but only once or twice a week if I do and the rest of the time I have free and it’s when I am not working on those days that I get bored!
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Work | Tagged: Junction box, Work | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on April 22, 2013
Storage Tank
I’ve seen it all, I’ve had it all but still I get surprised now and then in the course of my working day. From poorly installed circuitry, incorrectly installed circuitry which fails to comply not only to the electrical regulations but any regulation in some cases! I have seen work done by so-called qualified persons and those who are members of an inspection authority such as NAPIT or NICEIC and found the work wanting. Those who take the ‘Part P’ course to qualify working in bathrooms or kitchens when often they are not qualified electricians in the first place fail to observe regulations concerning cable sizing and tapping off existing circuits. I could go with the list at the risk of boring the reader but suffice to say I come across such things all the time. On Friday morning last week I was called to an apartment where the lady was complaining of there being a foul smell emanating from her hot water cylinder cupboard in her bathroom. I discovered three things wrong with the installation of the immersion heater circuit. One, the switch controlling the heater was faulty but that was probably caused by the second thing I found fault with, a loose wire in one of the terminals. The third problem, which I had to leave, was that somebody had wired a circuit from the same supply cable to the immersion heater. The tagged-on circuit was protected by a switched fuse unit supplying a water pump on the hot water system and used very little electrical current but nevertheless shouldn’t have been wired from the immersion heater circuit. I let it go because the two circuits were being controlled by a 16 amp breaker. The combined current of the two appliances would be less than the capacity of the breaker thereby keeping it safe. Rather than replacing the immersion heater switch with the same type I decided to fit a switch of greater capacity and all was back to normal, no overheating of the switch and no more foul smells! Throughout my time there my ears were being bombarded with the constant sound of the lady chatting to me like a crazed tape-recorder that wouldn’t switch off! I could have told her politely that she was a distraction but I chose not to as it seemed she had much on her mind that she needed to get off her chest. What can I say?
Shirley Anne
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Posted in People, Regulations, Work | Tagged: Electric heating, Hot water storage tank, People, Pump, Work | 4 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on April 20, 2013
A cat nap
When I was much younger I could stay the course all day long and not feel tired until I stopped whatever I was doing, whether at work or play it made no difference. Now I am older I find the same principle still applies, to me that is. Although I may not do as much now I can plod along all day doing this and that but once I stop tiredness steps in. I might be out walking or cycling, shopping or working either away from home or at home and don’t feel the least bit tired, then I stop for the day and before I know it my eyelids feel heavy and all I want to do is sit and have a snooze! It is especially so after I have eaten something whilst I have been active or soon after I have ceased activity. The biological reason for that I believe is the fact that more oxygen is required in digesting food so the body switches into a more relaxed state. Well that’s what I read on the subject some years ago. Of course as I got older the effect has proved to be more noticeable! I was working on Monday for about five hours without a break and came home for a late lunch, the other half of a beef stew I had cooked the previous day. I sat down in the lounge for a few minutes and dozed off for a short while, a kind of extended cat-nap, in reality about fifteen minutes. Had I worked all day, which I could have done, I would not feel any the more tired. Whilst I am working or busying myself some other way I don’t feel in the least bit tired. People ask me how I can be so active for such long periods without feeling tired but I cannot answer that question, I really don’t know the answer, or maybe I do. I don’t think I am alone in having such staying power, I know many people who are equally capable of putting in many hours of work or other activity without feeling tired but I’ll wager most, like myself, will feel tired once they stop! Perhaps the reason for my stamina and staying power is the fact that I have always led a physically active life both at work and play and I do exercise as much as I can, it’s in my blood.
Shirley Anne
- My Frienemy: Exercise (vanillasuicide.wordpress.com)
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Posted in Activity, Exercise, Lifestyle, Play, Work | Tagged: Activity, Beef, Cook, Energy, Exercise, Lifestyle, Stamina, Stew, Work | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on April 2, 2013
Windows 8 Desktop Concept
Who knows what a day may bring or what a week will turn out to be. At the beginning of last week I found myself with nothing to do but all that soon changed and then I found myself swamped with work. I was half glad it was the weekend so I could have some respite. I say half glad because I am never happy with nothing to do. I actually enjoyed last week and the jobs I had to do gave me much satisfaction and I believe those I worked for were happy too. However life isn’t all work and no play. On Monday I had no work scheduled so in the morning I accompanied E to PC World so I could buy her a replacement power adapter and lead for her computer as the old one became damaged and was unrepairable. Whilst we were there I asked her if she would like a copy of Windows 8. Her computer has been running Windows Vista since I bought it new for her some years ago. It was never a really good operating system I feel, though I’ve not used it. E doesn’t like it and was never happy with it. I was waiting for the opportunity to buy her the upgrade anyway so I bought a copy for her. I also took the opportunity to buy two carrying bags, one for the iPad she won a week or so back and another for the Nexus 10 I had ordered via the Internet and was waiting delivery of. I received the Nexus on Tuesday. We didn’t have time to dine out last week and may do so this week if we have the opportunity. It all depends whether I have an easier week at work. I can never tell what my working week is going to be like even if I know what I have to do. I know one thing though, it will be an easier week for my purse, I intend to curb my spending for a while having spent rather a lot during this month.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Computer, Lifestyle, Money, Work | Tagged: Computer, Money, Operating system, PC World, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Work | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on March 27, 2013
English: Level Crossing by Slack’s Bridge Engine Road leading to a small parking area by the Lode and three farms.
In my capacity as an electrician I come across some characters amongst my clients but by and large they are all nice people. Some of them are out to get a bargain and will haggle over the price and if I am in a good mood they might just get one! There have been one or two though who, having agreed a price with me before any work commenced then haggle over the price once I have finished! Now that just isn’t on. On the other hand there have been occasions whereby, through no fault of my own in setting a price, I find that the task was far more involved than I was given to believe. One such an occasion happened a few days ago but my client agreed that the extra work needed would be paid for as I couldn’t have known there was going to be a problem with the information he had given me over the phone. These things all come with the territory, however, there are some people who really do try it on. One evening a few days ago, quite late in the evening too, I received a phone call from a lady who lives about a half-mile away and she asked if I could install two light fittings for her. On discovering where she lived I asked about parking my vehicle as the front of her house faces a long paved pathway which runs alongside the railway tracks and some distance from the nearest road. The road itself is a no-parking area unless a parking place can be found in the designated parking bays some distance away. That is a problem in itself as the road runs through the main shopping area of our ‘village’ and finding a space can be difficult at the best of times. The house she lives in is one of many accessed via the same pathway behind which are other houses whose gardens back onto theirs, The fronts of these other houses face the road on which they are located but here and there are alleyways wide enough to take vehicles, some wide enough for two vehicles side by side located between them which give limited access to the rear of some of the houses facing the pathway but not all of them. This road is also a no-parking zone but has no parking bays along its length either. Unless there is access to the rear of a house located on the pathway it is impossible to park anywhere close-by. Back to this lady. When I asked about the parking facilities she said I could possibly park in the railway parking area located on the other side of the tracks facing her house as the authorities wouldn’t mind. Knowing my luck I would be penalised for parking there. I asked if there was access to the rear of her house and she said there was at one time but she had the gate removed and the access bricked up! No joy there then. The ‘unofficial’ parking zone alongside the railway involves walking a distance of a few hundred yards and across the level-crossing similar to the photograph above (if the gates are up) then down the path on her side of the tracks to her front door. Now you might think this should be taken in my stride but when you consider that I would have to carry a heavy toolbox and an extra-tall ladder (her house has high ceilings) it becomes a ridiculous request given that I am over 67 years of age and don’t need the hassle! This sort of work is best suited to two guys where one can drop off the materials and his mate at the house or as close as they can get and then go and park the vehicle or return when the job is complete. What was more annoying with this lady was the fact that she wasn’t able to be at the house during the day and asked if I could do the job in the evening! It turns out that she was selling the house and was having someone come and see it on Saturday and needed the lights fitting beforehand yet she couldn’t make the effort to find the time during the day to accommodate an electrician! Added to that she must have known days ago that she wanted the job done. When I told her that I don’t work in the evenings and that it would be too dark to see what I was doing anyway she said she could make time in the morning. She asked how long the job would take and when I said allow one hour she asked if I could be there at 8 in the morning. I said I could be but this was before I realised where she lived. I explained my situation, that I only work part-time and I need my van to be reasonably close to any property that I work in case I need anything for the job and for carrying tools to and fro. I don’t want to go on a route march every time I want something! Telling her my age made her realise she was asking too much of me although in actual fact my age doesn’t stop me from doing jobs far more difficult than the one she was asking of me but I didn’t tell her that!
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Behaviour, Life, People, Work | Tagged: Parking lot, Parking space, People, Road, Vehicle, Work | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on March 16, 2013
Chicken Curry
Well Wednesday turned out to be a most peculiar but engaging day. As it turned out and with reference to yesterdays post about the weather, it was gloriously sunny all day long with hardly a cloud in the sky. I had to do a small job in a house eight miles from home in the little township of Formby where I used to live (actually it was Freshfield the northern part of Formby where I once lived). I was back home before 10.30 and as I had no other work scheduled for the day I decided I might go for a ride on my bicycle in the new cycling kit I had ordered and received on Tuesday. E asked me to post something for her in a specific post box outside the Post Office in the Village and note the time I had posted it. She has been undertaking a survey for the Post Office which entails timing mail deliveries from and to certain recipients. For this small task she gets paid in kind, that is she receives postage stamps free of charge up to a limit. As she uses the post quite often anyway this is something of a little bonus for very little effort. The Post Office sends her the materials and addresses for it to be delivered so it costs her nothing. She is into this sort of venture. Anyway I took the envelope and posted for her. I had it in mind to do a few miles but I found it far too cold to ride any distance with what I was wearing even though I was wearing some warm underclothing. I decided to return home after a mile or so. When I got back home I spent some time on my treadmill whilst I was dressed for it, even though it was cycling gear! Finishing my stint on the treadmill I asked E if she would like to dine out with me but not until after 2 o’clock. It was then just after noon. We haven’t been out together since the beginning of November but I will say no more about that. I asked her to choose the venue as I usually do and she had a preference for a country restaurant we have often visited in the past, so that is where we went. It is something like fifteen miles from home. As we approached the entrance after parking the car a young girl member of staff saw us and said ‘Here’s double trouble’, and greeted us. When we got inside many of the staff greeted us as if we were long-lost friends they hadn’t seen for years. We were last there less than six months ago but it is nice to be remembered and welcomed wherever we go. We placed our order, fish for E and chilli for me but when the food arrived I noticed that my chilli was in fact a chicken curry! I called the waitress over smiled and said that my chilli looked more like a curry. Embarrassed, she offered to change it but I refused to allow her to do that and assured her that it didn’t matter. E and I had a great laugh over that one remembering an incident we experienced in a restaurant in Montreal a couple of years ago when the waiter delivered the wrong dessert and then after a short time replacing them with what we had ordered. He then forgot to leave utensils so we might eat them! We sat there for twenty minutes (for a laugh) waiting for him to come back. Explaining that we couldn’t tell him if our dessert was to our liking as we didn’t have a spoon to eat it with he promptly fetched the spoons apologising for his error. When he realised we were just having fun at his expense he had to laugh about it himself. I love these kinds of incidences, they make life more enjoyable and fun. E and I enjoyed each other’s company as we sat and laughed during our meal. As the meal was placed on the table my mobile phone rang and it was from a gentleman who lives in a road close to ours. He wanted his new cooker connecting but we were cut off. I rang his number and told him that I couldn’t oblige him until late afternoon as I had just sat down to eat. He apologised for interrupting my meal and accepted my offer to call to see him later. Just as E and I had arrived back in town he called me again and cancelled the job even though I told him I would be there within the next 30 minutes. E had something to say about that but I had a feeling he would be calling me again before too long. E popped into a store so buy some milk and then we drove the further mile and a half home. Just as we pulled into the driveway I got the call. He apologised for ‘messing me about’ and asked if it as possible for me to call and connect his cooker. He explained that he had tried other electricians in an attempt to get the job done immediately but none were available at such short notice. I wonder why? Well I knew that would be the case and E and I were talking about it just as he called. I went indoors to collect my van keys and drove the few hundred yards to his flat and had the job done in fifteen minutes. It more than paid for our afternoon out with more left over! Funny how things work out sometimes.
Shirley Anne
- Your funny for the day…. (itssweetforcertain.com)
- funny (laaftanoon.wordpress.com)
- Jamaican Chicken Curry (flycandydc.com)
- Sunday Funnies – Prank Time! (jenniferjensen.com)
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Posted in Dining out, Electrical, Work | Tagged: Dining out, Formby, Laughter, Montreal, Post Office, Work | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on March 10, 2013
Electrician and Mechanic February 1913
Just when I thought I would be taking things easy for a while the job requests start pouring in. Going days without work then it all comes in at once. Everyone’s request is urgent of course but when they discover I am not available for a day or so they suddenly realise that their jobs are not that urgent after all! This is because they want me to do them I suspect or they would be calling someone else to do it for them instead. This is good for me of course because I get the work and I can pan it out over the week taking days off as and when I feel like it. This past week has been typical to that described above. A newly-qualified middle-aged electrician I know and to whom I have passed a few jobs in the last couple of months happened to have been working in a house I was called to last Thursday. I took the call whilst working on another job and explained that I wasn’t available until after lunch, which incidentally I missed, and that was acceptable to the caller. It appears that my electrician friend had been there a week or so back and had replaced an old distribution board and had found difficulty with its installation but managed to do it anyhow. I could see how difficult it must have been with it being positioned in an awkward place. During the installation he discovered that there was a fault on the shower circuit but couldn’t trace it or he hadn’t the equipment or time to do it. He wisely left the cable out of the board but that meant the lady of the house wouldn’t have a working shower. I think he assumed the fault lay in the shower itself but he wasn’t sure. The lady was well-pleased with his work and felt a little sorry for him as he explained that he was newly-qualified and wasn’t sure what to do. I arrived at one o’clock after a busy morning’s work with the intention of examining the job and doing it the following morning but after running a few tests I discovered where in the installation lay the fault. It was between the distribution board and the ceiling pull-switch upstairs in the bathroom and I suspected it lay in the kitchen wall behind the new wall units. I decided to locate the cable under the floor above the kitchen and cut it thus separating the remainder of the cable feeding the shower and switch in the bathroom. I tested both cables and it confirmed the fault lay in the wall as I had thought so that section of cable would need replacing. As the fault was showing a short-circuit between the neutral and earth conductors I figured someone had driven a nail or most probably a screw through the cable and the only place that could have happened was in the kitchen wall. I suspected one of the fixing screws that had been used to support the kitchen wall unit. Unfortunately installing the new piece of cable meant it would have to surface-mounted in parts or it would mean destroying a newly tiled wall! I also tested the shower itself just to be certain that it wasn’t faulty and indeed it wasn’t. I returned the next morning to finish the job placing the exposed new cable in mini-trunking tucked away in the corner under the kitchen units and hardly noticeable. It was the best I could do given the circumstances but the lady was pleased I had been able to do it at all. In her own words, ‘there’s no substitute for experience’ she told me and I think I have to agree with her! LOL. One good thing came out of it all though, I made a new friend in her and I have been given more work to do there this coming week.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Electrical, Work | Tagged: Bathroom, Electrical fault, Electrician, Shower, Work | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on March 7, 2013
Working life
I often wonder what each week will bring to my working life, even each day! I remember when my life was filled with commitments to others in the workplace, in my job as an electrician and how I was forced to spend my days because of my contractual obligations. Once I became self-employed those chains were taken away and I could please myself how my working life would be. At first though the chains weren’t completely removed as I took out a small contract with a local firm to look after the maintenance of their retail outlets and cafés but even so there was still some freedom to do other things. That contract ended when I had decided it wasn’t worth continuing with, it had become financially less profitable and was taking up too much of my time. At that point, in 2005, all of my time became my own and I was able to take on larger private electrical work. Since then of course I work fewer hours and can utterly please myself what I do. It is this fact that I am having difficulty in appreciating. When once I used to look forward to the weekends and days off work I don’t have to do that now. I can treat each day the same as the next, I can take days off whenever I please and it is a great feeling. However, filling those days can be a problem for someone like myself so used to working and liking it. Old habits die-hard, new routines are difficult for me to get used to and half the time I don’t wish for the status quo to change. Many people might find this a little strange but I like to be occupied working at something at least part of the time, for me that is as much a great feeling as waking up on a weekday knowing I can please myself whether I want to work or not! The weather recently has been fair with lots of sunshine, a prelude of days to come hopefully, days when I most probably won’t want to work so it will be great knowing I don’t have to.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Future, General Chat, Leisure, Life, Lifestyle, Work | Tagged: Contract, Employment, Lifestyle, Work, Work–life balance, Working time | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on March 3, 2013
English: Now, what type of light fitting were you looking for? Travellers passing this long established lighting shop on the A3400 may notice the owner’s penchant for colour coding their lampshade display. In readiness for the festive season a distinctly berried choice has been made.
It isn’t often I post about my work………………….Lie number 1
It isn’t often I post about those I am working for…….Lie number 2
It isn’t often I post about things that I install……..Lie number 3
Well of course I do post about my work, quite often and occasionally I might mention the people I am working for but I can’t remember when I wrote about equipment and fittings I have installed. I am now more or less semi-retired in that I tend to select the type of work I will take on and generally limit the number of hours I work each day. There is also the fact that I don’t get enough requests to be able to work every day sometimes which all means that I get a lot of free time to myself. Anyway much of the work I do these days is replacing light fittings but it is not just restricted to that. Since it became fashionable to have ornate and fancy lights around the home many people need electricians to fit them and over the last ten years I have been employed more and more doing just that. It isn’t that I hadn’t been employed fitting lights before of course but I now seem to be getting more of this kind of work. There are many good light fitting designs but there are also many that just don’t fit the bill. I don’t know who designs some of these lights but they sure make things awkward sometimes. Some of the things I come across are lack of space behind the fixing plate or main body to accommodate the wiring, no allowance for the presence of more than one cable, which is often the case as modern ways of wiring can put anything up to four three-core cables at the lighting point! Poor methods of fixing the light to the ceiling or wall are sometimes a problem as too are the extremely short or tiny screws often supplied which make fitting them very awkward. Then there are poorly positioned fixing holes for mounting the unit to the wall or ceiling, inadequate space to keep wiring away from heat generated by the lamps, poor connecting blocks and other design faults all contributing to an annoying time for the electrician! Many of the design faults I see in light fittings are so unnecessary and would be very easy to avoid for anyone with experience in actually fitting them but I suppose that is the problem, they probably haven’t any! I call them the designers from hell but only when I get annoyed trying to get round the problems. Having said all of that there hasn’t been a light fitting yet that I have been unable to fit, despite some of the problems I get fitting them!
Shirley Anne
- Focus on design: Swarovski light socks (queenofheartsanddesign.wordpress.com)
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Posted in Design, Work | Tagged: Design, Electrical wiring, Electrician, Light, Light fixture, Work | 6 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on February 26, 2013
Saturday with Friends and Family
Life has a funny way of taking you by surprise doesn’t it? Many of the plans we have seem to get interfered with or something spoils what we had in mind to do. This often happens with my weekend plans. One thing or another gets in the way. On Saturday morning all I wanted to do was to remain in bed, something that I like to do occasionally but seldom get the chance. For some reason or another I went to bed on Friday night feeling rather tired. I hadn’t done much during the day, it was one of those days when I was pretty much inactive so it was hard to understand why I was so tired or why I slept-in so long. Usually I get disturbed by phone calls from people wanting my services but that wasn’t the case on Saturday. I didn’t get downstairs until noon though! It’s great when I’ve no pressing commitments. Totally missed breakfast of course but I wanted to get some exercise before lunch so I spent some time on the treadmill before returning upstairs to wash and dress, then downstairs again for a bite to eat. Half-way through my lunch I got a call. Now I don’t usually work at the weekend and especially not on the Saturday which I consider as my Sabbath day. My faith demands that I do no work except if it is by way of an emergency or is absolutely necessary. The principle being that the Sabbath day was made for man and not man for the Sabbath day. I am not restricted to complete abstinence from work under the new covenant wrought by Jesus Christ, it is all about having time out from the working week, having the rest we need. Anyway I took the call and discovered that the caller had a fault on their electrical power circuits and thus were unable to cook or power the heating system amongst many other things of lesser importance. With the weather being so cold the heating system needs to be working! I explained I was in the middle of lunch but I would be there as fast as I could. The house was over eight miles away in another town and I was there about forty minutes later. Fortunately the fault was simple to repair, it was a faulty power socket which I soon replaced and all was well again. It could have been something more involved, taking hours to put right but thankfully not this time. I returned home and spent the rest of the day as I had planned, doing nothing!
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Rest and relaxation, Rest and sleep, Work | Tagged: Biblical Sabbath, Rest and relaxation, Sabbath, Work | 8 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on February 19, 2013
MOT test stations have designated test bays where the tests are conducted. VOSA is the government agency responsible for the MOT scheme.
These last couple of weeks has seen me rather less active at work than I would like but it appears from what some of my acquaintances say, there isn’t much work to be had anyway. Strange as it may seem the beginning of the year has been quite profitable for me over the last few years despite people generally having spent a lot of money over the Christmas and New Year breaks and indeed January has been the same this year too even though I didn’t return to working till after the first week had passed. February thus far at least hasn’t been so good so I am wondering what the week ahead has in store for me work-wise that is. Today, Tuesday I have to take my van for its MOT early in the morning so I shan’t be available for a couple of hours. I am hoping it will sail through with no problems. We’ll see. On Friday I arranged payment for my road-fund licence or road tax via the Internet and on Saturday I received the reminder and a new proposal for the van’s insurance cover, which as it happens is actually about £65 less than it was last year! That’s a bit of a bonus isn’t it? The proposal was £409 for the fully comprehensive cover I normally take out (I pay the first £100 of any claim) and naturally I have accepted. I paid that over the Internet on receiving the proposal the same morning. To be honest I was expecting my cover to cost me more for two reasons, one, nothing ever usually drops in price and two, I had wondered if the new legislation to level-out male and female insurance contributions might have had an effect on mine but it appears not. The reason it went down I think was that my agent (Autonet, who specialise in commercial vehicle cover) decided that my previous insurance company wanted too much money so they found me another. It would be great if my van’s MOT could be done over the Internet too but of course that will always be impossible. So here I am almost ready for another year with my little van to do some more electrical work. I wonder if I’ll get any?
Shirley Anne
Update: The van passed the test with flying colours and just as I got back home I had a call to do a job which covered the cost of the test with plenty over. I’m just happy I don’t have to repeat all of this until next year!
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Posted in Driving, Internet, Life, Motoring, Work | Tagged: Insurance, MOT, Road tax, Vehicle insurance, Work | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on February 14, 2013
English: A dis-assembled electrical outlet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The telephone rings and someone wants a job or two doing rather urgently but I am otherwise engaged. I offer to do the jobs the next day but it appears the next day is inconvenient for the caller. ‘When can I call?’ I ask. Well I am at work all week and my husband works nights, comes the reply. Can you do it Saturday? No, I reply, I do not work over the weekend, I must have a break too. Oh! Well I’ll have a word with my husband and I’ll see what he says. A moment later and, ‘Can you come on Monday’? I reply that I will be there at 9 o’clock. So what was the emergency? This happened to me recently and when I got there on the Monday I discovered that the lounge ceiling light hadn’t been working for two years and someone had attempted to find out what the problem was. I later found that they had left it in a dangerous condition. The other jobs were to simply exchange a couple of power sockets and light switches with new ones. Not exactly an emergency either. As for the attempted repair of the ceiling light, I wish people wouldn’t let an unqualified or incapable person do it for they often leave the repair in a worse state than it was beforehand. There is nothing wrong in doing small electrical jobs yourself as long as you are competent, unfortunately some people think they are when in reality they are not. What people do in their own homes of course is none of my business but when I am asked to undo their mistakes it annoys me somewhat as many a time they have made the job more difficult than it otherwise would have been. In one way though it is a benefit for I can charge them more for my services.
Shirley Anne
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Posted by Shirley Anne on February 4, 2013
Hello, weekend.
Last week got off to a very slow start and I didn’t get any work until Wednesday but the last three days made up for it. I am supposed to be working part-time and although that is true it can be hard upon me when the work comes in all at once. Consequently I can be idle for days and then be rushed off my feet for the remainder of the week! This week was no exception and on Friday I went to bed quite tired and had a good night’s sleep, so much so that I got an extra lie-in on Saturday morning. Eventually though that was disrupted by early telephone calls to my phones. I have a house extension phone and my mobile phone which gets charged overnight and they are both next to my bed. I received three calls between 9 and 10 o’clock but I answered none of them. I like my weekends free but others seem to think I am available seven days a week! Most of the time they are non-urgent requests and could be deferred until a more respectable hour or even day! Some people call my house phone during the working week expecting me to be there. Sometimes I am but it should be normal to make requests for work during normal working hours and through my mobile phone, especially as it is indicated on my advert. Self-employed people are not expected to have a life of their own it seems. The beauty of being self-employed though is that I can decide to answer or not., though I seldom do unless it is at the weekend and I am having a lie-in! Anyway I got out of bed and after prayer time I got dressed and ready to go for a short bike ride. It was a gloriously sunny day and I was determined to get some fresh air and exercise. I had been for a very short ride one day last month but the weather has been awful since then and neither had I the opportunity to go for a ride. The wind was blowing from the north-west and was quite chilly and the going was hard on the outward journey but much better on the return. I was a little out of practice I have to say but I managed the four mile ride. When I returned home I removed my outer clothing and got on the treadmill for twenty minutes or so. I hadn’t eaten on getting up so I just settled for a late lunch once I’d cooled off and changed my clothes. Another slow start on my bike but the treadmill exercise was at a better pace as I have been using it continuously since I bought it, in fact I went faster than I usually do.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Activity, Cycling, Exercise, Health, Well-being, Work | Tagged: Activity, Exercise, Mobile phone, Rest and relaxation, Slow-start, Time, Work | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on January 18, 2013
Chandelier (Photo credit: Ben Northern)
I have been quite active this week earning a few pennies as they say and by and large the jobs have been easy but one or two have been shall we say, a pain in the proverbial! On Monday I drove some eight miles just to remove a chandelier and replace it with an ordinary rose and flex. The lady is moving house and wanted to keep the chandelier. I will have the unenviable task of fitting in her new home, I say that because although she is a nice lady she can talk the hind leg off a donkey or put a glass eye to sleep! I had done work for her before so it shouldn’t have surprised me but I have that many clients it is hard to remember them all. The job itself should have been easy but it wasn’t, cables too short and a poor fixing on the ceiling. I don’t know why some electricians are so mean with the cables, a couple of extra inches/centimetres would make it far easier for the next person. What made it worse was the fact that the lady insisted on standing beneath the ladder telling me all sorts of things about her family, her sister’s illness, her dogs and anything else she could think of. All I wanted to do was concentrate on the task in hand, it’s bad enough without having to put up with distractions. She was charged a little more than I would normally have charged for such a job, firstly because it took longer than anticipated and secondly, I was being distracted. I left the job with my ears ringing. The following day I had another job but closer to home. Two ladies lived in the house and wanted an extra power point installing in the hallway for an Internet router. Someone had installed an extension lead as a semi-permanent measure. The nearest power source was from a single socket in an adjacent room which had to be replaced with a fused spur unit before wiring to the new position and replacing the single socket. This was to protect the circuit wiring from becoming over-loaded. On paper an easy job but when it came to replacing the socket with a spur unit and fitting a socket above, it became much more difficult. The socket was situated between a wall and a massive wooden display unit which couldn’t be moved without creating a lot of upheaval, aside from the fact that it was extremely heavy, even when empty! I had to make the alterations as best I could but I had only ten or twelve inches sideways space set back about fifteen inches and close to floor level in which to do it! I should have trained as a gynaecologist! It took a full hour to do whereas out in the open I could have done it in about ten minutes. I like a challenge but sometimes it gets ridiculous. At least I did it and more to the point, these two ladies kept out-of-the-way and let me get on with it.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Regulations, Work | Tagged: Challenge, Chandelier, Extension cord, Work | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on January 13, 2013
No calls for a while
Well after yesterday’s post I can say that the last day of the working week (for me) was one where I never stopped working and all of the jobs involved checking faulty light fittings and wiring. How soon was the question I had asked before I got work after my advert was reinstated and the following evening, Thursday, I got calls for work, so many I had to defer some to next week! On my second job I landed myself a much more profitable job at the same address. I will be replacing on old fuse-board with a version that complies with current regulations. That I will do next Friday morning. No doubt I will get other calls during the week, I hope. It gives me something to get out of bed for because I was beginning to feel somewhat stagnated and having to force myself into some form of activity. I have been keeping myself active though throughout the holiday. The last job in the afternoon on Friday saw me correcting a lighting circuit after the owner had made an attempt at doing it himself and made a botch of it. I have to admit it took some time to put it right but put it right I did, after which I fitted a new light fitting. That job was in a very small kitchen and the guy was one of those who wanted to see what was going on. I don’t mind people watching me work but the problem was the kitchen was small and he was rather large and kept getting in the way! So that was my first day back to work. I hope it isn’t the last.
Shirley Anne
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Posted by Shirley Anne on January 12, 2013
do it yourself (Photo credit: gildas_f)
No DIY, no nothing. It has been some time now since I did any work at home, even though there is plenty for me to do. Twelve months ago I gathered together all the materials I would need to build a wet room where a downstairs wash and cloakroom used to be. That room was stripped bare and a small amount of work was carried out but nothing since then, in February last year. Other work I could be doing like updating the electrical distribution panel which comprises six distribution boards has not been started either, outside work building and/or repairing concrete steps in the rear of the two garages, replacing the rear door of the old garage and a host of internal jobs I could be doing are left undone. The main reason for my reluctance to resume the work is down to the attitude of the person I live with, her attitude toward me that is. I sometimes get the feeling that I am a non-person to her, an irritation perhaps, someone who should never speak to her unless invited. Maybe it is none of those things but it is the way she makes me feel. So it is no DIY for the foreseeable future unless things change. There will come a time when I will be incapable of doing much work, providing I live that long and the longer I leave off doing it the less inclined I will be to do it at all! It’s such a shame and all unnecessary but there you go. I haven’t done work of any kind at all for three and a half weeks since I held back my advert during the holiday season. That advert was reinstated on Wednesday but it will take a day or so for any work to come in, if indeed it does at all. In the meantime I am marking time. One benefit is that I have more time for exercise!
Shirley Anne
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Posted by Shirley Anne on January 3, 2013
Kenmore washing machine & dryer (United States) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A few days ago I asked myself the question, ‘I wonder how long’? By that I meant how long before someone phoned asking me to do some work. I’ve enjoyed myself during the holiday by doing almost nothing, although at times feeling a little bored the rest has been welcome. I never expected anyone to call me at least until after the middle of next week as I have temporarily withdrawn my advertisement until then. Only those already having my card or those I have been referred to by friends would be likely to call. However those people are quite numerous. Just before Christmas I did a small job for someone who lives fairly close, they had lost power to an outbuilding in which a deep freeze unit was stored, so it was a sort of emergency. Yesterday morning I was having a lie in bed and the house phone rang and it woke me up. The call was from a lady who was given my number from her friend, the friend whose loss of power I had fixed before Christmas. It was only the second day of the year and only 9 o’clock in the morning. It seemed her dish washing machine was faulty. Now once upon a time I used to repair all sorts of appliances but that was something like forty years ago! Since those days I have kept to installation work only. I had to interrupt the lady explaining that fact. She wasn’t to know as she probably hasn’t seen my advert. Well thank you so much for curtailing my sleep and my break from work. To be fair my advert does say ‘Domestic Electrical Services’ but even so it mentions nothing about repairs to appliances and is listed under ‘Electricians‘ and not ‘Appliance Repairs’ which is usually listed in the adjacent column. People just do not read the adverts before making enquiries and I have to refer them to those who carry out such repairs, I mean what part of ‘all dishwashers, cookers, fridges and washing machines‘ don’t they understand? Give me a break….Please!
Shirley Anne
- No more work! (minkyweasel.com)
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Posted in Work | Tagged: Appliance Repair, Appliances, Christmas, Dishwasher, Electrician, Home appliance, Washing machine, Work | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on December 19, 2012
A traditional Sunday roast: roast beef, vegetables, mashed potatos, Yorkshire pudding and gravy. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A day of rest? I have two of these every week, Saturday and Sunday so it was that I was surprised to get an emergency call to do some electrical work. The client explained that she had lost all power to her outbuildings in which were housed a tumble drier and two food freezers. Normally I do not take call-out calls except in an emergency. I had gotten up quite early, bathed, dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. I decided to prepare a meal for myself to be eaten later so I made a Bolognese sauce and placed some spaghetti in boiling water. Once the sauce was almost cooked I switched it all off for it to continue cooking in its own heat. Around four hours later I returned to the kitchen to re-heat the meal which was now fully cooked and placed it in a bowl on the table. Just as I sat down the house phone rang and I took the call. I explained that I had just sat down to eat my lunch but I would be there as soon as I had eaten it. When I arrived at the house they were just about to have their own meal, a Sunday roast. The kitchen was quite small so it was difficult to move about. It appeared the washing machine was also out of action, cut off in mid-cycle. The supply to the outbuildings seemed to be fed from somewhere behind the machine. Typical! It meant I had to pull the heavy-laden out from under the kitchen units. The soaking wet clothes were removed but it was still difficult to pull out the machine which kept dragging on the soft vinyl floor covering. I managed to pull it out part-way but the machine’s drain hose and water supply pipes were restricting me and had to be disconnected. The drain hose was easy, the water supply didn’t want to know! I get some jobs don’t I? Eventually I was able to gain access to a fused-spur unit which had been cleverly (?) placed behind the machine! Bad planning with no forward thinking. All that was needed was a replacement fuse. I explained to the client that the wiring to the outbuildings needed to be altered at some future date but for the time being it would have to do. One good thing about the installation was it the fact that a new distribution board with circuit breakers and RCD units had recently been fitted. So there went my Sunday afternoon rest but at least I was recompensed for my time.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Work | Tagged: Bolognese sauce, Cook, Home, Meal, Sunday, Sunday roast, Work | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on December 2, 2012
Parked up for the weekend (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Over the last couple of weeks I have worked my socks off as the saying goes and have earned a pretty penny doing so. I class myself as working only part-time now and generally don’t work for more than four hours each day if I get the work of course. This week has been the best this year as far as income is concerned, closely followed by the previous week. I have earned similar amounts throughout the year too so I have no complaints. I had thought I’d finished for the week on Friday when just after lunch I got another call. It turned out to be very easy to do and I was back home within the hour having made a nice profit. Although it is nice to get work especially when so many are finding it difficult to get work anywhere I am glad to get a couple of days free. I gave been able to find time for some exercise and hope to do more over the weekend. On Thursday I spent a lot of time on the treadmill and on Friday after I had done a small job in the morning and before I had my lunch I found time to go for a five-mile walk. When I returned home my cheeks were glowing a little. I have no plans for this weekend, I seldom go anywhere far at the weekend preferring to make time to do that during the week. The weather looks promising this weekend, cold but sunny and dry so I may spend some time on my bicycle providing there is no ice on the road. I don’t want to end up falling off a bike! One thing I have to deal with is getting up each morning during the week long before the central heating comes on which is around 8.15. I often have to get up at 6, 6.30 or 7 O’clock depending on where I will be working. During the warmer months I hardly notice the temperature but as it gets colder it is more noticeable. The strange thing is that I find myself not rushing to get dressed even though it is quite cool. In real terms the temperature in my bedroom never drops below about 12 degrees. I know the temperature because I have a thermometer on my dressing table. I have good blood circulation so my body soon gets acclimatised to temperature changes but I do feel severe cold in my nose, fingers and toes. Thankfully it doesn’t get that cold indoors! At the weekend I can lie-in until after the heating comes on, which is something of a luxury for me. Thank God for weekends.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Exercise, Lifestyle, Well-being, Work | Tagged: Exercise, Friday, Lifestyle, Temperature, Thursday, Time, Work, Workweek and weekend | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on November 23, 2012
Soft drink for Template:soft-drink-stub (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Well my sore throat disappeared as fast as it appeared as did my aches and pains and all without taking any medication. I dislike taking medication unless I am seriously unwell and will often suffer a headache before I will take a pain-killer. Perhaps I just ‘worked off’ my ailment, who knows? Anyway it is Friday and I am quite well. The job of work I was supposed to do yesterday I am doing today instead because the weather was too bad with high winds and heavy rain making working outside impossible. It promises to be much better today. Good fortune gave me other work to do indoors yesterday so the day wasn’t wasted. In fact I shall have worked every day this working week including Wednesday, my birthday. Wednesday found me working my socks off until one o’clock when I decided not to return directly home afterwards. I drove to the pub and treated myself to a cooked meal instead with a soft drink to accompany. The place was packed as seems to be usual these days around opening time until about two o’clock when many folk decide to eat out. Fortunately there was a table free when I arrived. I didn’t stop too long after my meal and then I drove home. Nothing special happened on my birthday and I didn’t dine out with E as I thought last week I might be doing. She and I are not on speaking terms yet again and that as usual is due to her attitude toward me. I often think I would be better off in my own place but I love her so much and still want to provide for her and be available when she needs me. I know, I must be mad but I’ve known that for years! Love has this strange effect upon me! One day. Well I started the week with only two jobs to do and I did say that would probably change before the end of the week and I was right! I have even given two jobs away to someone else although one of those jobs I simply didn’t want to take on myself, the other one needed sorting out immediately and I simply didn’t have the time as it was one of those jobs that might take hours to sort out. One good thing about being active during the day is that I am enjoying a better night’s sleep. That can’t be bad.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Activity, Health, Medicine | Tagged: Activity, Friday, Health, Love, Pain, Pharmaceutical drug, Sore throat, Wednesday, Work | 2 Comments »
