Kitchen designs

We've been trying to decide how to set out our kitchen.

We need to do this quite soon so that Robbie the Spark can run electricity to the correct places.

At the moment it looks like this,

We've had a couple of companies do some plans for us and these are the photos we have to choose from. The main difference is the positioning of the hob. At the moment I'm liking the corner position one although I wouldn't want the cupboard on the far left. 

Isn't technology great? Being able to see in 3D what a room can look like instead of just looking at a piece of paper with a drawing on it.

So many taps!

Hubby and I have just got back from another trip across the water to Ireland. We've recently purchased a house there and have set ourselves the task of getting it finished. You see it was built to its present condition about 10 -12 years ago and has lain empty since. It has walls, windows, external doors and a roof and that's it.

We like a challenge!
It's the potential you see. That's what they say on these property programmes, isn't it? We saw it and loved it and the area straight away.
At present there is no water, electricity or septic tank.
So we are deep in thought about the best heating system to use.
This last week we met our builder, electrician and plumber. All lovely guys who also seem to look on this job as a challenge too. Nothing is too hard for them, it would seem which is a good sign.
When you buy a half built house, who knows what went before!
We spent nearly 4 hours walking from room to room with Robbie the spark, marking the location of every switch and socket. Luckily we have already thought through how we would like our finished house to look so we already had in mind where most of them would go. Its deciding ahead about which direction a door will open which is harder to think about at this stage.
Then we met Pete the Plumber who has the rather hard job of locating all the plumbing pipes which have been laid under the floor and not marked! Again though, it seems nothing seems too much of a challenge about this, unlike hubby who is worrying now about what will be found.
Of course we have also had to think about the kitchen layout so we visited several kitchen showrooms and have had two lots of plans drawn up, both look very nice and workable but who to choose?
Bathrooms, there will be 4 in total, so we have to choose a style which will fit in each one but which taps to choose? Who knew there were so many taps?
We are hoping work will commence in the next couple of weeks so will be able to post some progress photos as and when we see any progress!

I might use that to one again.

I don't often write about my patients. After  all, I visit them, trim and file their toenails, maybe get rid of some hard skin or even a painful corn. I very rarely get a verruca to treat although this year I have managed to get rid of some for someone who had suffered with terrible verrucas and warts on her hand. I did a bit of research and got the right ointment to use and within 6-8 weeks they had completely disappeared.  Not only did my patient feel on top of the world but so did I. I've seen her a few times around town and she always comes up and waves her hands at me delightedly. It's nice to have a success every now  and again. That's not to say that every visit I do is a success. For the patient in question I arrive and sort out their feet and when I leave I hope that they feel better than when I arrived. It's a nice feeling, I enjoy seeing people, and I really enjoy the feeling of being able to help someone, make them feel better, because there is nothing worse than painful feet!
I often find it funny that most people I visit think that they have the worst feet in the world or at least the worst feet I've ever seen. Obviously I assess their feet and try to explain what I will do for them. Some of my regular patients are a little easier because their treatment, on the whole, stays the same each time. Luckily their feet are never as bad as the very first time I see them, because we keep on top of it with regular visits.
Some  patients like to make sure I'm doing a proper job, by pointing out things on their feet and asking me to file this nail a bit shorter or trim a bit more off this one here. I don't mind at all, after all they are their feet! 
One lady I visit regularly made me inwardly laugh the other day because she kept saying, 'you will cut that nail shorter won't you?'. If she said it once she said it ten times and each time I replied that yes I would, no problem. It was her reply that made me chuckle though. 
"I'm sorry, I'm not trying to tell you your job, I'm just thinking aloud".

I might use that myself!

Things happen in threes!

They say that things happen in 3's. 
Yesterday seemed like one of those days.

Occurrence number 1. 
The first happened when I got out of bed, well tried to get out of bed. I could hardly move. For a couple of days my back had felt a bit delicate, it hurt to move in certain directions and when I went to sit up in bed yesterday morning it was as if it was shouting out, " noooooo I'm not moving". I really felt like a woman double my age! I managed to roll over and sit up on the edge of my bed and gradually get myself into a standing position. It hurt to stand up straight so I was bent over slightly and hobbled off to the toilet. I got into the shower in the hope it would loosen up some muscles so I could move a bit more smoothly. It did work a little and hubby very kindly massaged some wondrous, miracle working Tiger balm into my back. Have you come across Tiger Balm, it's brilliant! We swear by it.
Anyway after a bit of breakfast I organised my bits and went off to work, making sure I was very careful lifting my equipment in and out of the car.

Occurence number 2-
After visiting two patients I had to drop back home to pick up hubby, drop him off at the dentist and then carry on to my next patient before returning to pick him up. That was the plan anyway. When I turned up at home and pulled up on the driveway I noticed what looked like steam appearing from the side of the car but when i opened the door I realised it was actually smoke, which smelt awful and it was coming from where the exhaust adjoins the engine. Luckily hubby witnessed this and after I had turned off the engine it stopped. However I needed to drive the car so I started it up again, luckily without the smoke. Hubby called the garage and thankfully they were able to arrange to see the car today.  I felt a bit nervous driving it after that but no more smoke was spotted. 

Occurence number 3-
Once I dropped off hubby to the dentist I went to the last patient of  the morning. I trimmed the gentlemans toe nails and then went to use my extremely useful foot drill/file. It is battery operated and when fitted with a small file(bur) I am able to quickly and efficiently file the patients nails. Much easier than using an emery board especially on the stubborn thick nails. For a couple of weeks now it has been cutting out and would only operate after wiggling the wire around a bit. Obviously a loose connection in the cable. I had arranged to send it off to be serviced after work yesterday but it obviously had other ideas. I could not get it to work at all when it came to filing this mans nails. 

Quite frankly by now I was completely hacked off. I managed to file his nails and left. My back was still hurting and I was wondering whether the car would get me safely home. Whilst I waited for my hubby to come out of the dentist I made the decision to cancel my afternoon patients. I really don't like cancelling but I really felt everything was against me yesterday! I went home, got changed and spent the rest of the day resting my back. Hubby very kindly posted my foot file off to be serviced.

I'm pleased to report that this morning I'm feeling a lot better. My back was not as painful when I awoke this mornings, I have dropped the car off at the garage and await the phone call to explain the diagnosis!

A Lady at Sea.

Some of you may have read a blog post I wrote in January 2013 about ' Having the Ability to say No.'
I mentioned then that I had been asked to do a talk at the RNLI Fish and Chip supper about my career in the Merchant Navy.
Well just over a year after my talk entitled 'A Lady at Sea' debuted in front of about 80 people, it has gone from strength to strength. Feedback from that very first evening was really favourable and complimentary. Several people suggested that I ought to go round and talk to WI groups.
I decided this would be great idea and after a little bit of tweaking to the original, a talk has evolved which I have now presented six times.
I have even got  two bookings for 2015 already!
I do keep rereading and rewriting it, adding and taking out bits that I think work better and changing the photos that I show.
It has given me a real boost of confidence and I'm so pleased at how interested people are in my story and they always ask questions!
As someone said at a recent talk I did, 'it beats learning about icing a cake or country hedgerows!'