Vitamin C

A shot of the clementines in all their delicious oranginess.  (I'm pretty sure that's a made up word).

Today has been "plumbing day".  The valve in one of the toilet cisterns wasn't shutting off and  the washer appears to no longer be capable of replacement, so a replacement valve was the solution.  

A trip to the DIY store later I returned home with the necessary piece of kit and duly proceeded to fit it.  All went reasonably smoothly and I was feeling rather pleased with myself at this point.  However, when I switched the water back on the valve refused to switch off once the correct level was achieved.  On dis-assembling the valve it looked as though there might be a bit missing .  A search of the internet (which included any number of videos of chaps helpfully showing you how to replace your cistern valve) eventually produced what I was looking for and yes, sure enough the replacement valve did indeed have a bit missing.

A second trip to the DIY store later and finally the new valve is fitted and all is well. But as a result of all that messing around it has taken twice as long as originally intended.

Later in the day I popped in to visit my 87 year old Dad and his 71 year old wife.  Their house gets more and more cluttered and dusty every time I visit.  We've all suggested they get a cleaner (they can easily afford one) but they would need to tidy up first, and that seems to be a step too far.  I dread going in to the kitchen, as its worse than any Student kitchen that I ever experienced back in my University days.  Currently they have 4 kettles in the kitchen.  3 are non functional.  I've suggested to Dad that he throw the old ones away but he seems to think that they might be repairable.  When I gently  point out that the cost of repair will be greater than the cost of replacement and that some of the broken kettles have been around for a good few years now, he just smiles vaguely and changes the subject.

One day someone is going to have to sort all of this stuff out ... and I suspect I know who that is going to be :-(