...That I'd actually picked up two Animated Soundwaves?
My intention is to repaint the second as SoundBlaster, replacing most if not all of the gold with silver (or something darker, but still metallic) and the 'neon' blue with flourescent yellow.
And, of course, Laserbeak will become Buzzsaw.
OK, I'm a geek. And?
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Browsing
Rather than head to the flat with my folks today, I elected to toddle off to Brent Cross and look into a bit of 'lifestyle shopping' - extra furniture for the lounge mainly, but anything else that might catch my fancy.
While my folks were planning to make an early start, it was damn near 11am when they finally left. For some reason, when my mother was ready, my father wasn't (though both looked ready!) and then when he was ready, my mother had started on the housework - loading up the dishwasher, hanging out the washing, etc. I have noted many times before that, whenever my mother announces "we're just off now" she actually means "we'll be off in about half an hour", but this really was quite strange.
Once I was ready, I walked off to the bus stop for Brent Cross, and was rather amused to find the estimated journey time to be about half an hour. Ahem. Make that 45-50 minutes, TfL.
It was quite a pleasant journey - a far cry from my last outing to Harrow - and I arrived quite looking forward to doing some browsing.
I don't normally browse. I'm the kind of guy who has a good idea of what I want, and go straight to it. Browsing can actually be quite uncomfortable for me, as it's basically going into a shop with the vaguest idea of what I'm looking for, and attempting to make a choice on the fly.
At least I wasn't planning on buying.
Still, I found that 'small double' matresses are easier to come by that 'small double' beds... So it looks like I'll have to head to specialist bed shops, despite what seem to be higher prices (even in their sales) than department stores.
Things like coffee tables tend to be standard sizes (60cm wide) which may be a little too wide for the space I have available. There are other options, such as small chests or drawer units which will offer additional storage, so there are still plenty of choices.
Typically, I browsed the toy sections as well. Fenwicks had wave one of Hasbro's new Universe/Classics line, so I bagged Prowl and Sunstreaker for £12.95 each, the new price for the Deluxe size. Tankor (aka Octane) doesn't quite work for me... those shoulders and lanky legs just don't seem to suit him.
I'd also intended to get a present for a friend, since she recently grabbed a selection of Kingtoy's half-size TF Generation 1 Seekers for me, having found them at her husband's favourite model shop. Sadly, while the intended gift is 'available', it wasn't on the shelves at Brent Cross... So I may just have to look elsewhere, or possibly order online if it turns out to be a store exclusive.
Once Brent Cross had been exhausted, I tripped over the road to Toys'R'Us and found not only the Universe stuff, but the new wave of Animated Deluxes - Jazz, Snarl (aka Slag), Soundwave and Oilslick. From this selection, I nabbed Jazz and Soundwave, and then ground my teeth when I noticed the TRU price for Universe Deluxes is the same old £9.99. Bastages.
Oh well. At least now I know to buy from TRU, not the department stores. Unless I'm desperate.
Still no sign of Voyager Optimus Prime, though. Whether this is because he's sold out (not inconceivable) or because he's extremely shortpacked (in some areas of the States, the Voyager size version is considered to be a myth because it's so scarce) I cannot say... but I shall keep looking.
I called my folks when I got home to check in on their progress. The bedroom floorboards are sorted, so the floor proper can be started tomorrow. At least one room is looking very good... Shame about the windows.
While my folks were planning to make an early start, it was damn near 11am when they finally left. For some reason, when my mother was ready, my father wasn't (though both looked ready!) and then when he was ready, my mother had started on the housework - loading up the dishwasher, hanging out the washing, etc. I have noted many times before that, whenever my mother announces "we're just off now" she actually means "we'll be off in about half an hour", but this really was quite strange.
Once I was ready, I walked off to the bus stop for Brent Cross, and was rather amused to find the estimated journey time to be about half an hour. Ahem. Make that 45-50 minutes, TfL.
It was quite a pleasant journey - a far cry from my last outing to Harrow - and I arrived quite looking forward to doing some browsing.
I don't normally browse. I'm the kind of guy who has a good idea of what I want, and go straight to it. Browsing can actually be quite uncomfortable for me, as it's basically going into a shop with the vaguest idea of what I'm looking for, and attempting to make a choice on the fly.
At least I wasn't planning on buying.
Still, I found that 'small double' matresses are easier to come by that 'small double' beds... So it looks like I'll have to head to specialist bed shops, despite what seem to be higher prices (even in their sales) than department stores.
Things like coffee tables tend to be standard sizes (60cm wide) which may be a little too wide for the space I have available. There are other options, such as small chests or drawer units which will offer additional storage, so there are still plenty of choices.
Typically, I browsed the toy sections as well. Fenwicks had wave one of Hasbro's new Universe/Classics line, so I bagged Prowl and Sunstreaker for £12.95 each, the new price for the Deluxe size. Tankor (aka Octane) doesn't quite work for me... those shoulders and lanky legs just don't seem to suit him.
I'd also intended to get a present for a friend, since she recently grabbed a selection of Kingtoy's half-size TF Generation 1 Seekers for me, having found them at her husband's favourite model shop. Sadly, while the intended gift is 'available', it wasn't on the shelves at Brent Cross... So I may just have to look elsewhere, or possibly order online if it turns out to be a store exclusive.
Once Brent Cross had been exhausted, I tripped over the road to Toys'R'Us and found not only the Universe stuff, but the new wave of Animated Deluxes - Jazz, Snarl (aka Slag), Soundwave and Oilslick. From this selection, I nabbed Jazz and Soundwave, and then ground my teeth when I noticed the TRU price for Universe Deluxes is the same old £9.99. Bastages.
Oh well. At least now I know to buy from TRU, not the department stores. Unless I'm desperate.
Still no sign of Voyager Optimus Prime, though. Whether this is because he's sold out (not inconceivable) or because he's extremely shortpacked (in some areas of the States, the Voyager size version is considered to be a myth because it's so scarce) I cannot say... but I shall keep looking.
I called my folks when I got home to check in on their progress. The bedroom floorboards are sorted, so the floor proper can be started tomorrow. At least one room is looking very good... Shame about the windows.
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
And Furthermore...
The laminate flooring and underlay arrived yesterday, delivered to the front door of the block of flats. The delivery guy started to lug it upstairs in curious stages, leaving both his truck and the front door open to passers-by, so I suggested he just brought it indoors and I'd lug it upstairs. He was - no surprises - more than happy to accept, and said that they're not really supposed to cart the stuff up several flights of stairs.
It didn't occur to me that I'd be lugging 217Kg of flooring up three flights of stairs, and that it would be hard, tiring work, because I didn't read the bloody label. It said '217Kg' quite plainly, but I only paid attention to that once I'd got everything lined up outside my door. Silly me.
Even in 15kg chunks, the batches of laminate flooring were heavy, and I was completely exhausted by the time I was done... I had been expecting my father's help in carrying it all up but, having been delayed by problems on the train, he arrived long after I'd finished. I'd intended to wait till he arrived to drag it all indoors because I was truly exhausted, but then I noticed the dark cloud rolling in.
(I'm not sure the laminate can really have been 15Kg per batch because there were 11 batches of that and three lots of underlay, and the underlay sure as hell didn't weigh 30+Kg per batch, but it wasn't labelled... whereas the laminate was clearly labelled as 15Kg per batch. Weird.)
Of course, now I have the flooring, there's a bit of a waiting game to play. The laminate requires 24 hours to 'acclimatise', while the underlay requires 48 hours. Something a bit squiffy about that... as you're delaying for two days because of the first stage, when the second stage is ready to commence after one.
Still, we had plenty to keep us busy.
Having taken up the vile carpet, we found hardboard. This did not answer the questions of squeaky boards or hollow-sounding patches in the hall, so that had to come up too. The former question was easily solved - the plumbers to fitted the heating were utter cowboys, and they didn't bother fixing back the floorboards they pulled up to lay the pipework for the central heating. The latter question is... more complicated.
A huge chunk of the hallway is one large board that's balanced atop some joists and underneath the skirting boards. We can fix that by screwing it down (assuming we can locate the joists with any certainty), but that still leaves it about a quarter of an inch below the level of the floorboards at one end, with a gentle slope at the other. My father thinks he has a plan to fix it. My mother would like to call in a professional.
Today could have been better. We seem unable to start work much before 2pm because of my father's habit of sleeping till lunchtime. The delay was exacerbated today due to his dental appointment, which meant that he got there somewhere after 3pm.
On the upside, we did have a visit from the local kitchen designer, who concurred with my assessment of the rather daft layout of the kitchen. Currently, there are worktops on two sides of the kitchen, but both are broken in the middle by the sink and hob respectively. The new plan will be to put the sink into one corner (below the window, so I can admire the view and have the best light... while I do the dishes) and the hob/oven almost in the opposite corner, towards the fridge. We'll also be making better use of the below-worktop space (a whole unit of drawers! A corner cupboard with shelves that pop out when the door is opened to maximise on the amount of space used therein!) and putting in some more over-worktop storage. On paper, it seems spiffy. Can't wait to see what the designer comes up with... I've picked out a colour (in a bizarre coincidence, virtually the same colour as the bedroom furniture) and gone for the simplest style from the cheaper range he offered. We'll need to have a 'design meeting' for me to pick out the worktop, etc. but that should be quick enough.
Their schedule for installation is full up till mid next month but, frankly, the bathroom is a bigger concern than the kitchen. What I have now will work, but the bathroom is wasting huge amounts of space and looks very untidy.
While I've said that I'll go to the flat tomorrow - we were hoping for a full day of work on the bedroom floor - I may change my mind and pop over to Brent Cross to peruse some other furniture (and, ahem, Toys'R'Us). For the most part, I'll probably end up going with Ikea (certainly for the extra display cabinet... but it'll be nice to see what else is on offer, and for how much.
And when I say "we were hoping for a full day of work on the bedroom floor", I mean just that - past tense. When we got home today, we had a message from my uncle, requesting the presence of my folks in a meeting with the solicitor dealing with my grandmother's estate. Sounds ominous... but it seems that most of the delays in getting it sorted out are because my uncle hasn't actually been dealing with things when he should, or getting the appropriate signatures all in one go. My mother is quietly seething, as she'd offered to take it all on, but my uncle insisted.
Tsk. Family.
It didn't occur to me that I'd be lugging 217Kg of flooring up three flights of stairs, and that it would be hard, tiring work, because I didn't read the bloody label. It said '217Kg' quite plainly, but I only paid attention to that once I'd got everything lined up outside my door. Silly me.
Even in 15kg chunks, the batches of laminate flooring were heavy, and I was completely exhausted by the time I was done... I had been expecting my father's help in carrying it all up but, having been delayed by problems on the train, he arrived long after I'd finished. I'd intended to wait till he arrived to drag it all indoors because I was truly exhausted, but then I noticed the dark cloud rolling in.
(I'm not sure the laminate can really have been 15Kg per batch because there were 11 batches of that and three lots of underlay, and the underlay sure as hell didn't weigh 30+Kg per batch, but it wasn't labelled... whereas the laminate was clearly labelled as 15Kg per batch. Weird.)
Of course, now I have the flooring, there's a bit of a waiting game to play. The laminate requires 24 hours to 'acclimatise', while the underlay requires 48 hours. Something a bit squiffy about that... as you're delaying for two days because of the first stage, when the second stage is ready to commence after one.
Still, we had plenty to keep us busy.
Having taken up the vile carpet, we found hardboard. This did not answer the questions of squeaky boards or hollow-sounding patches in the hall, so that had to come up too. The former question was easily solved - the plumbers to fitted the heating were utter cowboys, and they didn't bother fixing back the floorboards they pulled up to lay the pipework for the central heating. The latter question is... more complicated.
A huge chunk of the hallway is one large board that's balanced atop some joists and underneath the skirting boards. We can fix that by screwing it down (assuming we can locate the joists with any certainty), but that still leaves it about a quarter of an inch below the level of the floorboards at one end, with a gentle slope at the other. My father thinks he has a plan to fix it. My mother would like to call in a professional.
Today could have been better. We seem unable to start work much before 2pm because of my father's habit of sleeping till lunchtime. The delay was exacerbated today due to his dental appointment, which meant that he got there somewhere after 3pm.
On the upside, we did have a visit from the local kitchen designer, who concurred with my assessment of the rather daft layout of the kitchen. Currently, there are worktops on two sides of the kitchen, but both are broken in the middle by the sink and hob respectively. The new plan will be to put the sink into one corner (below the window, so I can admire the view and have the best light... while I do the dishes) and the hob/oven almost in the opposite corner, towards the fridge. We'll also be making better use of the below-worktop space (a whole unit of drawers! A corner cupboard with shelves that pop out when the door is opened to maximise on the amount of space used therein!) and putting in some more over-worktop storage. On paper, it seems spiffy. Can't wait to see what the designer comes up with... I've picked out a colour (in a bizarre coincidence, virtually the same colour as the bedroom furniture) and gone for the simplest style from the cheaper range he offered. We'll need to have a 'design meeting' for me to pick out the worktop, etc. but that should be quick enough.
Their schedule for installation is full up till mid next month but, frankly, the bathroom is a bigger concern than the kitchen. What I have now will work, but the bathroom is wasting huge amounts of space and looks very untidy.
While I've said that I'll go to the flat tomorrow - we were hoping for a full day of work on the bedroom floor - I may change my mind and pop over to Brent Cross to peruse some other furniture (and, ahem, Toys'R'Us). For the most part, I'll probably end up going with Ikea (certainly for the extra display cabinet... but it'll be nice to see what else is on offer, and for how much.
And when I say "we were hoping for a full day of work on the bedroom floor", I mean just that - past tense. When we got home today, we had a message from my uncle, requesting the presence of my folks in a meeting with the solicitor dealing with my grandmother's estate. Sounds ominous... but it seems that most of the delays in getting it sorted out are because my uncle hasn't actually been dealing with things when he should, or getting the appropriate signatures all in one go. My mother is quietly seething, as she'd offered to take it all on, but my uncle insisted.
Tsk. Family.
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