from Harlech and London
fotoLibrarian
fotos, follies, fonts, food & other folderols

Archive for September, 2010

Oh My Giddy Uncle!

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

I don’t want to bang on about health, but this I found quite amusing.

As a youth, one of the first Acts I planned on my elevation to the throne was to ban everyone over the age of 40 from discussing their health except with health professionals. I stick to that ukase faithfully; now all my friends are health professionals.

For the past two weeks I’ve been enduring bouts of giddiness. Standing up quickly, I nearly fall over. Rolling over in bed, I get violent pillow spin (no, it’s NOT the drink). I have to wait a few moments before getting up. At the Budapest exhibition at the RA yesterday I tilted my head to read a label on the back of a sculpture and carried on going down to the floor.

This morning I went to see the doctor about it. “Is it the drink?” she asked. She diagnosed it as inner ear problem; there’s some troublesome liquid inside which affects my balance. She prescribed some little tablets which I have to stick between my gum and lip and let dissolve. They’re called BUCCASTEM 3MG TABLETS.

Being a careful soul, I read the instructions which came with my anti-giddiness tablets carefully. They tell me:

“Side effects that may occur with Buccastem 3mg tablets are dizziness.”

Share

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Monday, September 13th, 2010

I have experienced two movie moments where the audience reaction has been so startling that I can’t think of the movie without first remembering the moment.

Immediately after the big shock in the 1967 Audrey Hepburn film “Wait Until Dark” the lights seemed to go up in the cinema. It wasn’t; it was a thousand cigarettes being lit simultaneously to recover from the shock. An illuminating experience.

The other was in “Sunday Bloody Sunday” when Glenda Jackson, short of time having overslept, fills her mug and tea bag from the hot tap in the sink. The entire theatre went “BLEAGH!”

I was reminded of that scene when I saw an ad for a product called the Quooker. It’s an additional hot tap, delivering instant boiling water.

After overcoming my initial revulsion, I read that it can save up to 55% of the cost of boiling a kettle.

Now saving money has an atavistic appeal for me (there’s some Cardi in my Welsh ancestry) so I looked further into this. It costs about a penny to boil 1.5 pints of water, so if the Quooker saves half that (always remember that “up to” actually means “less than”) that’s 0.5p I’ll have saved every time I boil a kettle.

This is something I do four times a day. That would be 2p saved per day. And as the only possible Quooker for me is the one with the Heritage tap in a brass finish and the high capacity tank, a mere bauble for £1,305, I’ll have saved enough to cover the cost in only 1,787 years.

But hey — it might just be worth it, to see people’s faces when I hand them a mug of instant after filling it up from the hot tap.

Share

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Sunday Bloody Sunday

What would you do?

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

Share

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

How many Citroën mechanics to change a lightbulb? Part II

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

You may remember from this earlier blog that I stormed out of my local Citroën main dealer when they proposed a fee of £235.00 for changing a headlamp bulb.

Well, I showed ‘em.

I bought two Xenon D2R bulbs off eBay for £17.95 and took the car to a little garage down the road.

Result? A bill for £397.15.

It could have been more.

The mechanic said I could wait while he changed the bulb. He reckoned 10 minutes, and it would cost £20.

As I had seen the process in this step by step photo guide on an Australian website and it involved taking the front bumper off, I declined and said I’d pick the car up later.

The garage rang later that afternoon. “We changed the bulbs but he no work. Mebbe wiring loom, we check fuse OK. We get lecrician man to check Thursday.”

The electrician man duly checked on Thursday for a nominal £23, and said that the headlamp itself had corroded, and needed to be replaced.

A massive old corroded headlamp from a Citroën C5

A new headlamp for a Citroën C5?  Certainly sair, that’ll be £701.65 from Citroën UK, please sair. Seven hundred and one pounds sixty five pence. That’s $1,080.96. That’s €854.07. For one headlamp? That’s more than the car’s worth.

How about one from a breakers’ yard, I wondered. They tracked one down very speedily, at a bargain price of £150.

So three hours labour, plus the parts, plus the lecrician man, plus the VAT (and I dare not count the time) came to £415.10.

To change one headlamp bulb. There’s progress for you.

Share

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

  • Last 5 Posts

    • Presentism
    • How big were the Beatles?
    • Anosmia
    • A Duty Of Care
    • 34 REASONS TO READ  THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT by HILARY MANTEL
  • Pages

    • About Gwyn Headley
  • Archives

    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • January 2020
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • July 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • July 2018
    • March 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • September 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • October 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • April 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • October 2012
    • August 2012
    • July 2012
    • June 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • September 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • February 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
    • February 2010
    • January 2010
    • December 2009
    • November 2009
    • September 2009
    • August 2009
    • July 2009
    • June 2009
    • May 2009
    • April 2009
    • March 2009
    • February 2009
    • January 2009
    • December 2008
    • October 2008
    • September 2008
    • August 2008
    • July 2008
    • June 2008
    • May 2008
    • April 2008
    • March 2008
    • January 2008
    • December 2007
    • November 2007
  • Categories

    • Uncategorized (349)

fotoLibrarian is proudly powered by WordPress
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).