The Big Chipper, The Camera and the Visitor

The Big Chipper

We had a visit from Jerry the Tiler.  He’s East European and has an accent as thick as gravy.  I did ensure he introduced himself first as I didn’t want to announce Tom & Jerry.  After looking at the bathroom, Jerry was able to convey to me that he needed the existing plaster walls chipped in order that the adhesive for the new tiles will have some grip.  The ‘Big Chipper” (Me!) has to do this by hand with a hammer and cold chisel.  Jerry will be back in a fortnight to do the technical stuff.

You can see I’ve made a start in the corner

This is hard going for an old fella. 

I’ve set myself a target of completing the chipping in seven days.  Then the walls have to be brushed clean and washed.

The Camera

Just over a year ago the lens on our large Canon DSLR camera locked up.  The lens range is from 24 to 105mm but we could only get it to move between 50 and 105.

It took me a while to realise there was a problem (sometimes I’m a little slow…. but don’t tell Jan!) I decided there was probably a loose screw or pin inside the lens.  Nothing major, and was almost tempted to disassemble it (common sense prevailed).  A week ago I took it to the camera repair shop where they required $99 to examine the lens and would then send me a quote to repair.  I was thinking the actual cost would be less than $99 and almost fell off my chair when the quote for $660 arrived.  Now I’ve had this problem in Australia before.  Last time it was the Sony shortwave radio.  They wanted $275 to repair the radio.  I declined and had it repaired in Hong Kong for $20 whilst on one of our holidays.  At $660 I could get the lens repaired in Hong Kong and pay for the return flights.  Therefore I declined to have the lens repaired and was out of pocket by $99.  But when I collected the re-assembled lens I discovered it was back to having the full zoom range of 24 to 105mm.  RESULT!

The Visitor

This morning we had an unannounced visitor.  Jan poked her head around the bedroom door and said “Who’s that out on the front lawn?” 

A strange place to be pushing the infant pushchair???

Being polite, I asked if I could help him.  He informed me that he was doing a ground test for the crane company using a ground proximity radar.  He’s checking for underground voids as the crane will be positioned on our front lawn in order to lift Jan’s swimming pool over the house.

YES…. the bobcat is due today to dig the hole for the swimming pool.  It’s likely to be a busy day!