Thursday Thoughts

Easter is nearly upon us, so for those of you into the resurrection thing, Happy Easter! and for those who are otherwise inclined, Happy Ēostre!

Good news and bad news from Fraggle Manor, the good news being I purchased the new macro lens released by Fuji I think back in February.  I didn’t think they’d ever get round to it, and their 60mm macro lens that I have been using, was a disappointment to me after having been used to the Nikon 105mm, which was just awesome. I am chuffed as nuts with the new Fuji 80mm, so much better than the 60, it’s bigger, and heavier, but it’s quality all the way.  It has OIS for the shaky-hand brigade (moi) and a minimum focus distance of 25cm and full-scale 1:1 reproduction ratio. It’s a bit slow to focus (as was the 60) but that doesn’t matter, macro isn’t about speed shooting. I love it already and here are some test shots

and yes that is my cherry blossom tree’s first lot of flowers, might be a tad early as we’re forecast another few days of bitter weather, but the tree doesn’t seem to care.

 

So whats the bad news? Stress has arrived at Fraggle Towers in the shape of a new kitchen. When Phil semi-retired he decided to get the house into shape, and has decorated a few rooms himself, but we came to the conclusion that as the fridge freezer was in death throes, and other bits of the kitchen were in a poor state, we would go all out and have a new kitchen. It started this week on Monday, with the kitchen stripped out, first phase electric and plumbing (i.e shutting everything off) and plastering. Today was to be floor- levelling day, with the new kitchen units due at 7.30am on Tuesday after the bank holiday, and the fitters following hot on their heels. But the leveller hasn’t turned up. Neither has the plumber who is supposed to remove a floor heater thingy that’s still plumbed in so the concrete can be poured.  Of course I’ve been in touch with the project manager guy, and he’s passed on my number to the plumber and leveller to have them ring me when they’re on the way, but it’s 5.30pm now so I think they won’t be here today.  Phil thinks they’ll come tomorrow or Saturday, I hope he’s right or Tuesday morning is going to be a right palaver.

In the meantime, we have converted our little conservatory into a mini kitchen, microwave, breadmaker, kettle, cool~bag as a fake fridge and our little chest freezer all in there, and prior to this week I spent a day cooking lots of different dinners for us so we don’t have to rely on take outs.  Sweet & Sour chicken, Chicken in black bean sauce, lasagne, Chile con carne, spaghetti bolognese, portions of spaghetti, rice, mash.  We’re eating better than we normally do when we had a kitchen! My mosaic shed is now a storeroom for all the kitchen stuff, most of which we didn’t know we had 🙂 Tonight though we’re going to see Phil’s sister and have dinner there while we do a load of washing in her machine. Nice to have family nearby.

Hopefully everything will sort itself out with the kitchen, and then it’ll be a good news day! Luckily I have a magic button which should make everything OK, feel free to use it yourself if you have a need!

scary biscuits! 😱

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38 thoughts on “Thursday Thoughts”

  1. Good luck with that button, FR. We have an old-fashioned 1997 kitchen (previous owner) that is definitely going to see me out. I couldn’t stand the stress of kitchen upheaval.
    Like the look of that lens a lot. Sharp as a tack, and you obviously know what you’re doing with it.
    Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. Thanks Pete, fingers crossed they turn up at some point this weekend. I have missed doing my macro flowers with the Nikon lens, and ‘made do’ best I could with the 60, I am so happy to have this new one and will be macro-ing everything I can find! 🙂

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  2. Oooo… Renos on the kitchen around a holiday are always up in the air!! People never show up when they should and (as I’ve seen this week at my own job) apparently people just take the whole week off for Easter or something because it sure has been busy!! Hopefully it all works out for you! Also, you pictures were so pretty! It may take a bit to focus, but the end result is great! I hope your cherry blossoms survive their early appearance!

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      7. … But, did you push it and it made everything ok?? Is there a time delay?? I need to know more before I go pushing buttons!! It may blow up the entire planet and go “… Well, it was the only way to make everything ok” HOW WOULD I FEEL THEN?!? 😣😋

        Liked by 1 person

      8. Well I’ve pushed it twice, and both times it says it’ll be OK so thats the floor leveller and plumber sorted, but I won’t know for sure until Monday night, if they’ve been, it worked, if they haven’t I will smite that button with the fury of a helligon. Whatever THAT is!

        Liked by 1 person

      13. hah
        1) from World of Warcraft
        Helligon · 16260 · 474 ilvl. 90 Undead Destruction Warlock. ❮Darksajd❯. Drak’ thul. Character · dunno what that’s all about but it’s the best one to fit my phrase.
        2) Helligon mountain bike trail in Banska Stiavnica. 1524 m blue singletrack trail. not really appropriate.
        and finally, the most AWFULLEST ever in the world track of something that purports to be music but is an abomination to the ears
        https://bizarreleprousproduction.bandcamp.com/track/helligon

        Liked by 1 person

      14. Well, I should have known the WOW reference… Sigh. I hear enough about World of Warcraft that one of my employees may murder me for that one passing me by. Lol! And that “music”?? Was that just demons from the depths of hell screaming?? I assume that was what they were going for… It’s funny what they can classify as “music” sometimes!

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Oh I see, Phil is one of those guys who retires only to do even more work! Some people really do like to keep busy. Kitchen renos are pretty major, and majorly inconvenient. Sorry yours are already running wonky. Hard to find good people. Here’s hoping it goes smoothly from here.

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