Dom Davis (The Blog)

Since the birth of Willow I’ve have an awful lot of time off, thanks, in part, to me saving a lot of holiday to the end of the year and also due to it being Christmas and the large chunks of time off handed out around this time. I’ve spent most of the time playing Skyrim (which is partly responsible for the lack of blogs) so it was little surprise that, at about 7pm on new years day I was sat there, controller in hand while The Zozo watched TV on her laptop and Willow slept on her. A pretty standard scene of late, except on this particular date the house suddenly went pop and was plunged into darkness and silence.

Like a few places I’ve lived in Little Cottage can often trip the entire lighting circuit if a bulb blows. But that’s when you turn the lights on and the bulb blows. No one had been turning on any lights, and besides, with the exception of The Zozos laptop, the entire house was off. One of two things had happened: power cut, or something had blown the fuse box. With the latter being the easiest to check I grabbed my phone, turned on the torch [power cut? There's and app for that] and checked the consumer unit. The fuses were all fine, but the RCD had tripped. For the initiated out there the fuses will blow if too much power is being drawn in order to protect that circuit. Usually only one circuit will trip (which is why it’s just the lights that go out when a bulb blows), but there is a master fuse which can go and take out the entire house. The RCD checks for short circuits and will turn off the entire house if one is found. Putting the RCD into the on position simply had it flip back to the off position. Not good. Something in the house was shorting.

Two culprits spring to mind. We’ve been running an electric heater in the living room practically 24×7 and the last, admittedly much cheaper, one we did that to blew up when The Zozo tried turning it on once. That was straight off at the mains, along with the TV cabinet as that had a lot of kit plugged into an eight way that was unceremoniously rammed down the side which could have a loose wire. Next up was the kitchen. Our kitchen tap has developed a slight leak and while there is a little pot to catch the drips I wondered if something had leaked and shorted out the washing machine.

On entering the kitchen I found the floor had water on it. But this water was soapy, which wouldn’t have come from the tap on the sink. The washing machine wasn’t actually going, so that wasn’t the issue. No, the only soapy water of late was… Willows bath.

Willow has a foldaway bath that we use with a plug that has an annoying habit of popping out. For this reason it’s used in the bathroom, with the theory being that if it leaks it’s not a huge issue. The theory didn’t quite take into account the age of Little Cottage. Soapy water was coming out of the bath,along the floor, down through the wall and out throught the light switch it the kitchen, down the outside of the wall and onto the floor. We had our culprit.

First things first, damage limitation. Willows bath was dumped in the shower and a towel put down between the rest of the water and the, until now, unnoticed 5mm gap between the tiles and the floor on one wall. Next up totally isolate the house electrics by turning off every fuse before unscrewing the switch faceplate in the kitchen and laughing at the juxtaposition of bubbles covering all the wires. Happy that it was just the lighting circuit and not trunking for anything else I then turned all the fuses apart from the lighting circuit back on and flipped the RCD. The house came back on.

The PS3 really doesn’t like being shutdown improperly so I then tested that was happy and not going to whinge about verifying its disk and spend hours doing that (priorities, people!) before digging out the torches because, let’s face it, an iPhone, the Christmas tree lights and a gummy bear LED light weren’t quite going to cut the mustard when it came to adequately lighting the place. We then sat down to not watch Pat die on TV because we had now apparently missed the start of that.

Before heading to bed I replaced the light faceplate as it looked drier and less bubbly. I didn’t turn the circuit back on though, figuring I’d give it another few hours to dry overnight just in case. The next morning I flipped the switch and all was well. Mad for a fun evening. To avoid a repeat of the fun The Zozo is expermimenting with putting the bath in the shower. I suspect judicious use of sealant may also be in order to blog the gap between the floor and the wall.

It was skool again last night and this time we learned all about boobies and bathing (the extra info sheets even covered bathing the boobies so it was pretty comprehensive). Other than giving me a legitimate reason to write boobies all over the Internet it also proved to be a very informative session.

Sadly, I also discovered that “it exempts me from getting up at night to feed the baby” is not something to be listed in the “pros” column for breast feeding. Instead it seems I’m to also get up, prepare gourmet food and hot drinks for The Zozo, followed by changing Nubbin afterwards so The Zozo may sleep again. D’oh!

So yes, lesson learned. Keep mouth firmly shut next week

This morning as I walked to the train station I accidentally banged my arm against one of the bollards in the Morrisons car park. I didn’t feel much as my watch took the brunt of the blow. Sadly this also meant the watch had taken the brunt of the blow. There is now an ugly scratch on the face. Not happy.

I can’t remember if I blogged about this at the time but our trip to Borneo, thanks to a minor misunderstanding on my part, featured hurtling through KL airport to get our connection to KK. Ironically enough, due to a canceled flight it also involved hurtling through KK airport to get to KL on time for the return flight.

In preparation for the holiday The Zozo had purchased a sun hat, and a lovely hat it was. So it didn’t get damaged in flight she took it on the plane with her. Sadly, at the security screening at KL, in the mad rush to collect our belongings from the tray and then run (not walk, run) to the gate the hat rather got left behind. We like to think it is still on holiday in KL having fun.

On our recent trip to the Algarve we weren’t quite as prepared as the Borneo trip and no hat was purchased prior to the holiday. One was nearly purchased at Standstead airport but proved too expensive. The holiday was, in fact, entirely hatless until Thursday when we visited the local town and The Zozo found a nice hat for a price she was willing to pay.

Once again the hat was not placed in the luggage to avoid damaging it and it was carried onto the plane, making it safely through the security checks.

It was half way to the baggage reclaim hall when it was a bit late to be returning to the plane that The Zozo realised she’d left her new hat in the overhead locker. It looks like lost hats are going to be a bit of a family holiday tradition for us. At least this time the hat got some use while on holiday

Yesterday I had what can only be described as a brain fart. I was putting my half full (and thankfully plastic) glass back on it’s coaster when my hand just let go of the glass several inches above the desk. Don’t ask me why, just happened.

There were two immediate consequences from this course of action. Firstly the coaster, which was a printed tile, broke. Annoying, but not the end of the world. Secondly my drink went everywhere.

Now the human brain is a remarkable thing. Within fractions of a second I had assessed the spill, identified which bits of technology now had liquid on them and ranked the items in terms of damage limitation versus cost.

First step, keyboard off. It’s an expensive wireless model and would need to be replaced by a much less expensive wired keyboard. Turning it off should stop anything shorting.

Next up dry laptop. It only got a few drops but it’s a high cost item and I’d be lost without it. Better to be safe than sorry.

Now return to keyboard. I have a roll of bounty in my drawer (don’t ask) so grab a few sheets, moo up excess liquid, place keyboard upside down on another table.

Now move headphones which are dry, but may not stay that way if the spill spreads. Dry and move sunglasses. Should be fine, but their carbon fibre and may delaminate if left in liquid for too long. Move mouse and check for liquid.

Mop up spill. Much bounty used but we need to make sure the desk is dry and not sticky.

Finally return to keyboard and clean out between each key before tentatively trying…

…and watching loads of spurious characters get typed when keys are pressed. Arse!

Work provides us with Cherry keyboards. I find them hideously uncomfortable and, after years of using keyboards with minimal key travel, I can’t type with them. Now the hope was that, once it had dried out, my nice wireless keyboard would be fine, but in the interim I decided to pop to Temple and get a nice Apple keyboard. I find them comfy and I’m used to the key layout. Worst case I have to use that from now on. Best case I have a spare keyboard.

I’m not sure if it was the fact it had just rained but yesterday’s walk home seemed to involve a multitude of bugs flying at what can only be described as mouth height. For someone who naturally marches to the station at high speed with their mouth open to facilitate breathing this makes life very awkward. Hopefully it’s just some sort of short lived spawning event otherwise I may need to invest in some kind of bug mask. Either that or get used to the taste of bug.

This weekend I’m off to Long Melford where I will be attending the surprise 40th birthday of one of my friends from Colchester. I’ve organised to stay round another friends house and bought a present so all that’s left to do is drive down there, right?

Wrong. Facebook has kindly pointed out that the friend I am staying with also has a birthday on Saturday. Arse. Need to source a second present. So, head into Norwich, get second gift, drive down, job done?

No. On putting a reminder in the calendar to get the second gift I also noticed it was my best friends birthday on Saturday. Thankfully we don’t do gifts in the traditional sense, but we do like to exchange pleasantries somewhere roughly round the correct date (although, to be fair even hitting the right month can be troublesome) so I just need to remember to send some kind of text or email.

So have I remembered everyone or does anyone else have a birthday Saturday?

I, like many others, hate mondays. So much so I’ve even gone and created a special category for it. Mondays are evil. Usually it’s just a background malevolence but on occasion they attack with extreme viciousness just to remind you they’re there. Yesterday was such a day.

I have a hospital appointment on the 12th of April. I’ve known about this for months. Work has been informed, a car parking space has been booked at the work carpark. Reminders have been put in calendars. Alarms have been set. All I have to do is drive there on the day, drive back to work, finish my day and drive home. Aside from the fact I hate driving into work nothing could be simpler.

No. From across the void the insidious touch of Monday can be felt, whispering in my ear “You have a hospital appointment on Monday”. And so it is that my April goes: Friday the 8th, The Weekend, Monday the 12th. A Monday that sees me waking tired, crawling out of bed and getting ready.

By 7:20 I’m logged into work remotely. This disturbs The Zozo on her day off but needs must and the hospital appointment means I’ll be in late.

By 8:00 I’m out of the house and taking the car to work. A car that The Zozo was going to use.

By 8:15 I realise it’s the 11th. My appointment it tomorrow and Monday has, in one fell swoop, buggered up my day, The Zozos day and had my drive into work unnecessarily. Not bad for that time in the morning. Monday had not finished there though.

Thankfully the drive to work was uneventful. It’s the school holidays so the roads were peaceful. By the afternoon I was feeling rough though. I suspect I was just tired but by 3 I had a raging headache. I thought it would be best to leave the car at work overnight and get the train home. Monday thought otherwise. I had no coat, Monday had a big raincloud. Mercifully Monday didn’t get wind of my change of plan until too late and I spent my journey home racing the rain. I won. Just.

Feeling spiteful Monday got it’s revenge by letting the milk leak in the fridge overnight. I hate Mondays.

I work in an old converted flax mill on the top floor. It’s an open plan office which has some of the original features of the mill, including the roof beams.

Under the eaves, where my desk is situated the beams are an occupational hazard as they come down to head whacking height. Normally at least one person will bang their heads every month and I’ve had my fair share of knocks. Yesterday, however, I didn’t so much as bang my head as clobber it. I was talking to someone so wasn’t looking as I moved to walk away. I was about to head home so I was moving at a fair pace when *BAM*, I hit myself round the head with several thousand tons of building via the medium of a roof beam.

The side of my head took the brunt of the blow and it was all I could do to stand there and just keep blinking. Still, I didn’t pass out or throw up so I figured I was fine, if a little stunned, so I resumed my journey home, albeit with a raging headache.

Rather oddly both sides of my head were tender this morning when I washed my hair. I also have a slight bump on my head to remind me to take care when walking under the eaves. I suspect I’ll be extra careful for the next few months and it’ll be a while before I next clonk my head.

The Zozo and I had our first proper day off in something like 3 weeks yesterday. Neither of us had work so a lie in could ensue, For once I didn’t have any freelance stuff that needed doing and she wasn’t doing coursework. We even got a reasonable nights sleep.

None of this made a farts worth of difference as 5:156:15am announced itself via the medium of the radio alarm clock. No longer a fun novelty on a Sunday, the loss of an hour is now real and it’s left me discombobulated.

So far this morning I’ve spilled a glass of water while trying to get The Zozo breakfast in bed. Rather than a gentle rousing she now had an unceremonious wakeup call with my trying to clean up. By the time I was done my cereal had gone soggy. I hate soggy cereal. I gave up half way through and, realising how late I was, gulped half my cup of tea while dressing before pouring the rest down the sink. After a mad run to the station to catch my train I realised I’d left my watch and hanky at home. I’ve also misplaced some Very Important Documents I was going to sort today. And it’s only half past something in the morning. The move to BST is evil.