The grumpy garden has, for some time, had a number of LED solar lights - bought from Macro - glimmering away, and also slowly falling apart. While in B&Q the other day, I noticed a selection of 12v garden lights reduced. I'd never intended to have wired lights in the garden, but Mrs Grumpy was getting, well, grumpy, about the state of the solar lights, so I took the plunge. These are Select-A-Lights from Ring, who are based in Leeds.
This is a 12 volt DC system, and I bought the 60w transformer, the PIR/Timer unit, 25metres of cable, 6 LED post lights, and 4 path lights. Not cheap in the end, but the effect is good.
The photosensor is set too dark - so I need a way of getting the thing to come on earlier in the evening, of course there's no adjustment - don't be daft! The PIR is very sensitive - which in my mind is a good thing. I'll probably leave the unit to come on at dusk, leave the setting to 3 hours (there's also a 6 hour setting, and a dusk-to-dawn) until it's too cold to use the garden much then set it to use the PIR.
The lamps appear to be well made, but the connectors are an abomination! I resorted to using the block connectors, wrapped in self-amalgamating tape, then closed up in the daft little boxes supplied. The transformer, intended to be left on all the time gently warms up, so it's using power all the time - not too green that! I'll put a timer on it, so it's only on between, say 5pm and midnight.
I was actually in B&Q looking for mouse traps - for the garage. Sorry, but forget humane, these little beggars need to DIE. The plastic 'modern' traps are not very impressive, but the traditional wood and wire traps seem to be working - two deaths so far , using peanut butter as bait. Yeeeaaah!
Monday, 28 May 2007
Monday, 21 May 2007
Far, Far, Away
Mr & Mrs Grumpy spent the weekend away - we went to a stupidly expensive hotel in Derbyshire. We went to Losehill House Hotel near Hope. This is a 'country house hotel' - not our usual style, you must appreciate!
Losehill House is an early 20th century (?1915 ish) large country house, which I think was built as a CWH hotel, and must have been sold and renovated in recent years - and renovated very tastefully indeed.
On arrival. your first impression is not altogether positive, because the car park is far too small - and everyone will arrive by car - mostly Audi, BMW or Saab as far as I could see. There does not appear to be any concession to cyclists or motorcyclists.
The greeting at reception is very friendly - a theme that continues throughout the weekend - everyone, without failure is accomodating and very welcoming.
Our room was overlooking the back of the hotel - a room about the size of our living room at home! Very tastefully decorated. (Why, oh why, does every room have to have a retched television in it.... grrrrr; hanging off the wall completely out of place. I'd have prefered a decent radio, rather than a cheap clock/radio).
Rather suprisingly the bed was a standard double, rather than the super-huge size commonly found in hotels these days. It didn't feel comfortable on first bounce, but gave a really good night's sleep.
My only real beef - and its not much of a beef - was with the food, which was good solid grub, certainly not designer or foody - and plenty of it (eat as much as you want / self serve / carvery) - but totally out of character with the rest of the place. This could be sold as a virtue - good old fashioned fare, true English farmhouse cooking - but instead, the food is left unmentioned and unloved. Afternoon tea is another matter - very good, splendid cakes - taken in the orangery. (Orangery? What is an orangery other than a middle-class rebranding of a conservatory, extension, or lounge - don't be prissy - this was the lounge.)
Like just about everywhere else, the choice of non-alcoholic drinks was unimaginative and very restricted (they need to contact Lono for some stocks).
Mrs Grumpy tried out the pool and the outdoor hot tub and speaks highly of them.
We took one of the suggested walks, which is a story in itself - maybe for another time!
If you've got a few quid, and a weekend to spare then we thoroughly recommend a weekend spoiling yourself at Losehill House Hotel.
Losehill House is an early 20th century (?1915 ish) large country house, which I think was built as a CWH hotel, and must have been sold and renovated in recent years - and renovated very tastefully indeed.
On arrival. your first impression is not altogether positive, because the car park is far too small - and everyone will arrive by car - mostly Audi, BMW or Saab as far as I could see. There does not appear to be any concession to cyclists or motorcyclists.
The greeting at reception is very friendly - a theme that continues throughout the weekend - everyone, without failure is accomodating and very welcoming.
Our room was overlooking the back of the hotel - a room about the size of our living room at home! Very tastefully decorated. (Why, oh why, does every room have to have a retched television in it.... grrrrr; hanging off the wall completely out of place. I'd have prefered a decent radio, rather than a cheap clock/radio).
Rather suprisingly the bed was a standard double, rather than the super-huge size commonly found in hotels these days. It didn't feel comfortable on first bounce, but gave a really good night's sleep.
My only real beef - and its not much of a beef - was with the food, which was good solid grub, certainly not designer or foody - and plenty of it (eat as much as you want / self serve / carvery) - but totally out of character with the rest of the place. This could be sold as a virtue - good old fashioned fare, true English farmhouse cooking - but instead, the food is left unmentioned and unloved. Afternoon tea is another matter - very good, splendid cakes - taken in the orangery. (Orangery? What is an orangery other than a middle-class rebranding of a conservatory, extension, or lounge - don't be prissy - this was the lounge.)
Like just about everywhere else, the choice of non-alcoholic drinks was unimaginative and very restricted (they need to contact Lono for some stocks).
Mrs Grumpy tried out the pool and the outdoor hot tub and speaks highly of them.
We took one of the suggested walks, which is a story in itself - maybe for another time!
If you've got a few quid, and a weekend to spare then we thoroughly recommend a weekend spoiling yourself at Losehill House Hotel.
Sunday, 13 May 2007
Tesco Direct Delivers (mostly....)
Having a few spare bob in the bank, we decided to order a new tele and some living room furniture - and doing a search it looked as though the best buy coupled with the range of furniture we wanted was from Tesco .
So we had our self assembly furniture and 32" LCD television delivered, on time, as promissed. They even rang before delivery to make sure we were in.
First the furniture : if you are familiar with Ikea stuff then this is almost identical, perhaps slightly better quality, and certainly better instructions! My biggest concern with this type of furniture (Ikea Tesco or anyone elses) is the use of a single bit of re-enfororced cardboard nailed to the back to maintian the 'squareness' of the units. No complaints. Happy bunny.
Now the television - we went with a Bush 32inch with inbuilt Freeview - it's got some incredible model number IDLCD32TV22HD ! Great picture, too many features to comprehend quickly, good (but not great) sound - excellent connectivity. Strange that the main power button is on the back - you have to fiddle round the back or leave it on standby - bad design there chaps. The problem - there has to be one - was the remote control dying on me while I was setting it up. I could get many of the functions to work with an old Bush CRT remote, so it was definately the remote, not the set. So - I rang up Tesco - first mistake, big mistake! They offered me a refund of £20 or an exchange television - but they couldn't swap out the remote; only when I got assertive did I get the advice that I should have had in the first place - and I should have tumbled before I picked the phone up - to ring Bush directly. (Excellent manager on the phone at Tesco - bloke called Silas - who calmed me down a treat, and told me what I needed).
Bush's phone number was not that on the instruction book, but hey-ho! I spoke to a very nice young lady (possibly in Newcastle) who offered to send me a new remote, which I received two days later as promissed. This didn't work either - so I rang bush back, and got an Indian call centre this time (how does that work?) - who was flippin' useless - all she wanted to do was to send me another remote. Only when I asked if there was a way of resetting the remote and the TV was I given that info - for the remote you hold the left, right, down and 1 buttons down together for 4 seconds - this sorted the remote out, and now its' fine. (Before you ask- that did not cure the original broken remote!).
To reset the TV apparently you leave it unplugged for 30 minutes and that does the trick.
So great TV, great service from Tesco Direct delivery people, mixed service from Tesco Direct support, and Bush.
My faithful Phillips SBC RU 865 universal remote copied the codes off the Bush remote fine.
The other new toy is a Bush 2500 amplifier from Richer Sounds. Great price, easy to operate, does what it should. The only irritating thing is that the display on the front should have an option to change the source name, because I don't have a DAB radio attached, but I do have a satellite tuner, for example.
Don't recognise the living room now though!!
So we had our self assembly furniture and 32" LCD television delivered, on time, as promissed. They even rang before delivery to make sure we were in.
First the furniture : if you are familiar with Ikea stuff then this is almost identical, perhaps slightly better quality, and certainly better instructions! My biggest concern with this type of furniture (Ikea Tesco or anyone elses) is the use of a single bit of re-enfororced cardboard nailed to the back to maintian the 'squareness' of the units. No complaints. Happy bunny.
Now the television - we went with a Bush 32inch with inbuilt Freeview - it's got some incredible model number IDLCD32TV22HD ! Great picture, too many features to comprehend quickly, good (but not great) sound - excellent connectivity. Strange that the main power button is on the back - you have to fiddle round the back or leave it on standby - bad design there chaps. The problem - there has to be one - was the remote control dying on me while I was setting it up. I could get many of the functions to work with an old Bush CRT remote, so it was definately the remote, not the set. So - I rang up Tesco - first mistake, big mistake! They offered me a refund of £20 or an exchange television - but they couldn't swap out the remote; only when I got assertive did I get the advice that I should have had in the first place - and I should have tumbled before I picked the phone up - to ring Bush directly. (Excellent manager on the phone at Tesco - bloke called Silas - who calmed me down a treat, and told me what I needed).
Bush's phone number was not that on the instruction book, but hey-ho! I spoke to a very nice young lady (possibly in Newcastle) who offered to send me a new remote, which I received two days later as promissed. This didn't work either - so I rang bush back, and got an Indian call centre this time (how does that work?) - who was flippin' useless - all she wanted to do was to send me another remote. Only when I asked if there was a way of resetting the remote and the TV was I given that info - for the remote you hold the left, right, down and 1 buttons down together for 4 seconds - this sorted the remote out, and now its' fine. (Before you ask- that did not cure the original broken remote!).
To reset the TV apparently you leave it unplugged for 30 minutes and that does the trick.
So great TV, great service from Tesco Direct delivery people, mixed service from Tesco Direct support, and Bush.
My faithful Phillips SBC RU 865 universal remote copied the codes off the Bush remote fine.
The other new toy is a Bush 2500 amplifier from Richer Sounds. Great price, easy to operate, does what it should. The only irritating thing is that the display on the front should have an option to change the source name, because I don't have a DAB radio attached, but I do have a satellite tuner, for example.
Don't recognise the living room now though!!
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