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Monday 24 November 2008

War On Mould!

The war is won!

Well, the war is probably won, but I won't know it for a few months. First here's some background. I have a fitted wardrobe in my bedroom, quite a simple thing really, it has no back to it though, it's just a plastered wall. This happens to be an external wall on the 1st floor of my house, which is on quite a steep hill, about 2m away from another house. The wind blows quite strongly along this tunnel, and as such the wall gets very cold. Cold wall and warm room leads to condensation, and condensation leads to mould. The house in general has mould in a few places, poorly insulated walls and not enough air circulation are probably the cause (no damp according to a surveyor). The wardrobe was the worst though as the mould would get on to my clothes which then needed to be washed.

The previous con-artist, I mean owner, obviously knew of this problem and stuck cork-boards to the rear of the wardrobe. These in hindsight alleviated the problem, but at the time they were unsightly, smelly, and crumbly. Not only would I get mouldy clothes, they would have cork-dust on them too.

Battle #1: Back in July I decided to remove all of the cork-boards completely as I thought they might be exacerbating the problem. One weekend I spent all day Saturday and Sunday working on the problem. I dismantled the wardrobe as much as I could and removed all of the cork. It was stuck on extremely well and I was knackered by the end of it. I also painted the walls with an anti-condensation paint and cut 4 large ventilation holes around the edge of the wardrobe to let some air, and hopefully heat circulate. I put everything back together and thought that was it.

By October I started to discover a few of my clothes with mould again. I thought "Oh well, it must only be a few little bits, lets look at the back". Oh My God! It was 10 times worse than before, some of my clothes looked like they were alive. I pulled out all those that were mouldy to be washed straight away (2 full bin-liners) and thought what can I do next.

Mould 1 : Me 0.

Battle #2: The next step was to insulate the loft cavity above the wardrobe as I thought the heat must be escaping through the top as I remember the insulation stopping about 12" away from the edge of the house. An easy job, I already had some spare wool, so I could just lay it down. While up there I discovered the area over the wardrobe had had a plywood floor put on top of it, luckily screwed down so it was easily removable. It wasn't. Hours later, after I had bought a new tool to cut through it, the cavity was insulated, plus the edge of the roof. I also discovered a small broken tile that was letting water in, so I also fixed that too (I think). With the area insulated, a leak fixed, I thought I was on to a winner.

It was the middle of November when I looked again and found more of my clothes mouldy and the rear wall damp with condensation still.

Mould 2 : Me 0.

Battle #3: Last weekend I continued the saga. I took out all of my clothes to be washed, probably another 3-4 bin-liners worth including about 8 pairs of mouldy shoes/trainers. I dismantled the wardrobe, this time more thoroughly than before in an effort to sort it once and for all. In the process I discovered an old pull-cord light switch that had been disconnected but left in place. There was also a water-mark around the fitting which indicated either water or just cold-air was coming in. I removed the fitting, sealed it all up and then cleaned everything with anti-mould cleaner. I mounted polystyrene tiles around the ceiling and walls, sealing each joint front and back with mould-resistant and waterproof sealer until (almost) the entire inside was covered. There is one section not finished as I ran out of adhesive and sealer, but it is the section that gets the most heat as it’s close to an internal wall. I assembled the wardrobe and put all the misc stuff back in, awaiting all my clothes to be washed and ironed. I finished this about 9:30pm on Sunday night, ready to have my Sunday Roast, some TV, a shower and then bed. Luckily for me I have a wonderful and understanding girlfriend who helped me throughout and even prepared a delicious dinner for me!

Mould 2 : Me 1?

How can I win the war if I'm losing you may ask (if you're that interested). Well, the allies won the war eventually, even though at one point it looked pretty hopeless. The analogy might be a bit far fetched, but if the mould stays away, and the wardrobe stays dry then that's enough for me.

My joints ache and my hands hurt from the constant action on the sealant/adhesive guns, but I'm quite satisfied that it might finally be over, after probably 5/6 full days of work. If its not, then we might have to move house as I’ve got no idea what to do next!

Christmas Party Preperation

Every year, there is a company Christmas party at a local hotel and every year I'm sure all the woman spend time ensuring they have the right dress, shoes, bag etc etc. My girlfriend is no different; perhaps even more of a perfectionist than most, a quality we share. So on Saturday we went to Lakeside at about 2 or 3pm to look for a dress. We got home at 9:30pm!

We went to over 20 different shops, more if you count the different departments in Debenhams and House of Fraser. I think we tried on at least 20 dresses, perhaps even 30, and visited some shops twice. We tried Red, Black, Blue, Silver, Champagne, Purple and more. The shops unfortunately assume each and every woman has exactly the same body shape, and this proportion stays the same no matter the size. As most people know, this is ridiculous, women have hips, bums and boobs in all sizes, and trying to fit them into the same proportioned dress doesn't work well. I think in all we found only 1 dress that was good, all the others would have resulted in the possibility of a Judy Finnegan episode... Most people can't afford a tailored dress except for a wedding and so no wonder women want to be thinner and thinner, if the dresses had varying proportions, most people would be happy the way they are.

We ended up with a lovely red dress with some flower patter/detail down the front. Now all that's left is the shoes...

Tuesday 18 November 2008

Guitar Hero World Tour

So I had pre-ordered Guitar Hero World Tour from Game.co.uk for the ps3 and it arrived while I was at work on Friday. I couldn't wait to get home and play it as by coincidence my girlfriend's cousin was staying with us, 3 players, various instruments, it was gonna rock!

So, I got home, unpacked it and began playing on the drums. Shortly after starting I began to notice that occasionally the drums would seem to not work for a few seconds and the 4 LEDs on the top would flash and then go back to normal. This would happen maybe once every minute and I would lose a few drum hits in the process. Quite clouded by the new toy, I didn't really notice it as a fault at first, but then we plugged the guitar wireless receiver in to the drum wireless receiver (or the other way around...) and then it went mental. During play the guitar would also disconnect and reconnect as I discovered that was what it was actually doing. It was also doing it much more regularly and more annoyingly.

I tried various combinations but to no avail, the drums were the main cause as when plugged in the guitar on its own, it worked great. This is when the real problems started. I looked through the box it came in and couldn't find any packing note or invoice/receipt. At worst I thought they had made a mistake, but I thought I would give them the benefit and so printed out the various e-mails and web-pages I could find to show that I had bought it from them. On Saturday morning I called around a few Game retail stores to check stock availability and the ones closest to me were out. I eventually got through to one in Lakeside who said they had stock, but once I said I needed to swap my kit they magically changed their mind and the stock was now only "pre-order". I found another store in Lakeside and drove down there to simply swap my kit.

On arriving at the store the first brick-wall I encountered was the assistant telling me they couldn't do anything without a receipt/invoice and I should go away and come back when I had one. Not being a very nice customer, I stated that I wanted a new set today, regardless. By now another unhelpful assistant manager came over and stated that they Game.co.uk and the retail stores were different companies and couldn't help me at all. I was very insistent and after much arguing they said I could try to call Customer Services and ask them to trace my order through my Game reward card, and only then could they organise a replacement. I asked if they could call, had a direct line or could even let me use their phone, but their response was basically "sod off". So I did the only thing I could do, I stood in the centre of the store, blocking traffic while I called Customer Services. Unfortunately for me, I was on the phone for a minimum of 30 minutes before I got through to someone.

I spoke with a very helpful lady who found my order and said she wanted to speak to the assistant manager. She said it was no problem to get a replacement. I handed the phone to him and he took a few details and the proceeded to argue with her that I didn't have an invoice and that he couldn't take the item back without one. He lost the argument quite quickly and then proceeded to try to get me a replacement and out of the store as soon as possible. Let me tell you a little about Game's policy on returns "Partial returns of bundles cannot be made in Store, but must be returned by post using the details above". I was then quite suprised when the assistant manager told an assistant of his to open a bundle box and just give me a replacement set of drums, not even the box the drums come in, but just the drum unit itself. I went along with it, managing to get them to agree to giving me the cymbals and the kick-pedal etc. The assistant manager also wanted the guy to take both boxes out of the back of the store and swap everything out of the way. I was a bit paranoid that they would pull one over on me and so insisted we change it in the middle of the shop, plus it would make a bit of a scene I hoped. I wasn't wrong!

Half-way through swapping everything over, as I was given the drum-set, I noticed there was a whole section of the "new" drums loose, as though it had been dismantled or broken. At this point I think the assistant manager was too embarrased to argue anymore. The floor was covered in 2 sets of drums, both faulty, with me, my girlfriend, her cousin, the assistant manager and an assistant all standing around them. He just said "get him a new set and pack all this away". So, out I walked with a complete new set of drums that I'm glad to say, after trying them for a while, havn't given me any trouble and in many ways seem much better quality than the originals. The sensitivity of the original drums was a little off, but the new ones are perfect.

The game itself is not as good as Rock Band but the instrument seem much better. I just can't wait for the drum incompatibility problem to be resolved so I can use them on Rock Band and Rock Band 2!

Monday 10 November 2008

Weekend antics

Nov 5th was bonfire night, or Guy Fawkes night, in the UK and due to the global economic problems, there seemed to be far fewer fireworks compared to last year. The weekend just gone though made up for it somewhat as there were quite a few fireworks going off around the place, nowhere near as many as last year. If you're not used to fireworks night in the UK, it normally resembles the Iraq night sky. We decided to go to a local fireworks display at Danson Park that claims to have over £15,000 worth of fireworks and be in its 37th year. I've included a couple of videos, one showing the massive mortars they had near the end and also the closing finale, quite spectacular.





Also this weekend we continued to try to make the most of our house, clearing away old rubbish down the local dump, er, I mean recycling center. I can't believe how much stuff people, and myself, throw away. I had a perfectly good cabinet that no-one I knew wanted and so I threw it away. After my Gumtree/Craigslist experience I can hardly blame myself for not wanting to sell or give it away to someone. It just seems such a waste, there could have been someone just round the corner from me who could have really used it. My loft as a result seems to be a dumping ground for things that are too good to throw away, but not good enough to keep in the main house. This caused me such hassle as I was trying to add some more insulation in the loft that I almost decided there and then to just throw it literally out of the window! I wasn't trying to save money, but stop mould. Horrible, stinky annoying mould. My wardrobe seems to get cold, and then condensation forms on the wall (which is at the back) and then mould seems to grow. A lot of my clothes are ruined and it has been a major headache for over a year now. I thought I solved it once and it came back. This weekend I'm adding more insulation to the inside of the wardrobe, on the external wall.

Another funny thing (for me the geek anyway) is that I work for a company that makes rigid foam insulation, one of the best thermal performing insulation, and I end up using glass-fibre wool in the loft, and polystyrene in the wardrobe.

I do seem to ramble but I've got a lot to get down and not the time to organise! I am also in the process of selling Rock Band for the Wii and awaiting my pre-order delivery of Guitar Hero: World Tour for the PS3. ARGH! Why is it taking so long to arrive, it was posted last week I've just got a new 46" HDTV as well to play it on, everything is just waiting for it to arrive, the re-arranged front-room, the new TV. I'll write about it as soon as I've had a chance to play. In the meantime I'll continue to play LittleBigPlanet on my own or with my girlfriend if I can convince her to play along. So far it seems a great game, easy and difficult at the same time, cute but not childish. I even think it has a great longevity factor, I know it has only just come out, but the quality of the game is fantastic, really polished and original.

Tuesday 4 November 2008

Safe Selling?

I've recently been selling some old stuff I had around the house, mostly electronic things. I have been trying to sell my PS2 and XBox for AGES and decided to use Gumtree and Craigslist. I have been posting them every week for maybe a month or two and in all that time only received two genuine e-mails! All of the others wanted to buy it for their son/husband/father and have me send it to Nigeria/West Africa or Asia. There was even one woman who wanted to buy it for her priest (who was away working at a mission in Africa of course) and would pay me more than double the asking price and delivery! I'm not a stupid person and could spot them easily but I followed one through and issued them a Paypal invoice. Shortly after I received a very genuine e-mail from Paypal saying the money had been received and I should post the item. Most people wouldn't be fooled but some must be for these scammers to be sending so many e-mails out. After one deal fell through I eventually sold both the PS2 and Xbox but for the money I received I'm not sure it was worth it.

We met the buyer of the Ps2 at a local train station but due to all of the scams I had received, and the deal that fell through, I felt very suspicious. After we exchanged goods I happened to decide to drive home via a different route as I crazily thought he might follow me! On the way home we were driving along quite leisurely when a car came flying around a right hand corner on the left side of the road aiming straight for us. I was going so slowly that I couldn't even swerve, but just come to a quick stop. The car must have missed us by less than a couple of inches and proceeded to smack into a tree just past us. I jumped out and checked the people were ok while my girlfriend called 999. A guy got out of the car and went to the rear to get his wife and young baby girl out. This is where things get stranger. Before the ambulance and police arrived, three car loads of their relatives arrived! Luckily the neighbours had also come out and so I didn't feel so intimidated. One even made us a nice cup of tea. The ambulance arrived and checked everyone out and the only injury luckily was a small cut on the guy's head as he hit the steering wheel. The police arrived and conducted a small investigation and after the driver tried to claim he wasn't driving it became clear he was a drunk driver. The thing that gets me mad though was that the police told me they had to take him to hospital because of the cut and by the time they do a blood alcohol test he might be under the limit and they can't charge him for drunk driving! During the process I also locked my keys in the car with the engine running in my haste to get and. Its quite amazing that although we were driving along minding our own business, out of no-where we could have had a head on collision with a combined speed of probably 80mph.


For the xbox, as it was a bit harder to sell I was willing to travel into London to meet the buyer and after a week of waiting the day finally arrived. We arrived at 7pm and he wasn't there. At 7:05 called him and he said he was in a taxi and would be there in 10 minutes. Firstly it was strange he was in a taxi and secondly, I had spoken to him at 5pm when he said he was already leaving and would be there on time. Time passed and when I called at 7:15 he said he would be a further 10 minutes. At this point I thought I had been pranked, perhaps it was the same guy which the deal fell through from before. At 7:25 I called again and this time he was at a train station waiting to get the tube! I really thought that was it, he would pretend to be unreachable underground and leave us waiting for nothing. We waited and waited and waited some more and 5 minutes before I was going to leave I saw a guy looking a bit lost and starting to use his phone. We met, made the deal, shook hands and that was it. Of course on the trip back home I was even more paranoid, I couldn't lose the guy if he followed us on a train, we were stuck until we got to our station. Thankfully (I hope) he didn't follow us and I've got rid of one more thing cluttering up the house. All I need now is to go in the loft and try to sell some more crap.

Wish me Luck.

Monday 3 November 2008

Day 1 or Day 5110 billion

So, I'm a little late on the scene of Blogging but everyone I know has a blog and so I decided today was the day for mine, the day Lewis Hamilton won the F1 World Championship. F1 is something we seem very good at, even Ferrari has an overly high weighting of British Techie people behind the scenes. We're not great at most sports, at least consistently, we can win championships and medals, but we're not up there as one of the great sporting nations. Think of football and Brazil, Italy and Germany are the top 3, in Rugby you think South Africa and New Zealand. But one thing we British are good at is being Geeks, Nerds, Inventors, whetever label we put on it. We've been doing this for hundreds of years.

So its no suprise that we're good at a sport where men (mostly anyway) can lock themselves away in a flashy room and come up with ways to improve a lap time by 0.010 seconds. And to be honest, even if there wasn't F1, those same people would be in a slightly smaller room, with slightly less gadgets, tinkering with slightly cheaper stuff, but getting the same enjoyment out of it.

I'm a Geek, or at least I hope I am if we look at this chart. I'm a lazy perfectionist. If there is a computer that doesn't work, I can spend hours sorting it out so its working perfectly, but then not bother to clean the dust off of it. If I start on something I need it to be flawless, and if it isn't I get frustrated and angry with it and myself. But if I don't get started on it, it can stay flawed, broken or not working and it doesn't bother me, well at least for today.

My house is too small, there are a list of things I need to do, the kitchen, the garage, the front garden/wall, the bathroom, but I'm too lazy to start on them. This probably stems from the failures or head-aches that have gone before. I've managed to sort-of sort the study, the bed-rooms and recently the front-room (almost) but for the amount of work needed compared to the stress caused I'm not sure that I'll ever pluck up enough courage to start on the big 4!

I guess this is enough info for my first post. I hope I don't get lazy and stop updating this page. See you soon.