I was astonished to notice this today:
It's brand new Hyundai, and it's lovely. But do you see how they've ruined the lovely new tipping body by burning great holes in all the side panels in order to ventilate the gas bottles? I can hardly believe that someone has spent a small fortune buying this wagon! I mean, an ordinary platform body (which would have been all that was required to affix a bottle-cage to) would have been a fraction of the price of the tipping body alone, never mind the tipping ram, the power take-off and the assorted hydraulic wizardry! I'm still struggling to take it in.
On a lighter note; our Alice sent me the next picture this morning. I love "Top Gear", it's the best motoring programme on the telly, but I can just hear Clarkson repeating the words on the picture:
Back to reality, though; I've been missing for the past few days because I've been a busy-bee! The livingroom of our humble little abode, hidden away on the roof of "Our Luxor", hasn't been decorated for a long time, and was starting to look rather shabby. So it was decided (???) to repaint the walls. Now, as with everything here in Luxor, that's not as easy or straightforward as one might think!
For a start, the knotty-pine-style ceiling just rests on top of the walls......So?...... So the sunlight shines through the gaps which have appeared as the cement has shrunk, like old people's gums shrinking back to reveal more of whatever teeth they have left!
We've brought tubes of 'decorators caulk' (best buy from Wilkinson's) with which to accomplish the task of blocking up these gaps. Although I'm not an expert (nothing new there then!) I've plugged away scraping out the old cement and filled the whole of the joint with white caulking. Freda chose the new colour, which is the same paint code number as the old one but actually looks several shades lighter! And of course it was the usual see-through quality, but what do you expect for only 80le per 'jall-On' (actually only 3 litres!). Mind you, Girges the paint shop man did throw in a free new furry roller, which was hugely superior to the 1/11 one (Colloquialism: That's one and eleven, being one shilling and eleven pence, equal to about nine and a half of the new 'toy pence' we use in England now, and meant to signify the 'cheapness and nastiness' of any particular item) which we brought from home.
Since we had some slightly different pale yellow, but in a semi-gloss rather than the matt, I thought that some ablaq (Technical term: ablaq = the striped pattern effect which was created by using different and contrasting coloured stone, mainly in the Mamluke period, here in Egypt. But now more often created using different paints or finishing implements.) might look nice on the back wall, what do you think?
Just now, I'm waiting for Hany the plumber to come. He was due at 1 o'clock, to see what he needed, and then he was to return at 2 o'clock to get on with the little jobs and be finished by 4. I've done one of them myself, fixed the dripping (recently new) taps, but the other two jobs are ones that he has done before, and that he was paid for, so he's not going to be able to charge me a second time! I'll just wait, and wait, and wait. This is Egypt, you know?
For a start, the knotty-pine-style ceiling just rests on top of the walls......So?...... So the sunlight shines through the gaps which have appeared as the cement has shrunk, like old people's gums shrinking back to reveal more of whatever teeth they have left!
We've brought tubes of 'decorators caulk' (best buy from Wilkinson's) with which to accomplish the task of blocking up these gaps. Although I'm not an expert (nothing new there then!) I've plugged away scraping out the old cement and filled the whole of the joint with white caulking. Freda chose the new colour, which is the same paint code number as the old one but actually looks several shades lighter! And of course it was the usual see-through quality, but what do you expect for only 80le per 'jall-On' (actually only 3 litres!). Mind you, Girges the paint shop man did throw in a free new furry roller, which was hugely superior to the 1/11 one (Colloquialism: That's one and eleven, being one shilling and eleven pence, equal to about nine and a half of the new 'toy pence' we use in England now, and meant to signify the 'cheapness and nastiness' of any particular item) which we brought from home.
Since we had some slightly different pale yellow, but in a semi-gloss rather than the matt, I thought that some ablaq (Technical term: ablaq = the striped pattern effect which was created by using different and contrasting coloured stone, mainly in the Mamluke period, here in Egypt. But now more often created using different paints or finishing implements.) might look nice on the back wall, what do you think?
very nice keeps you busy. sandra mick
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