Here are just a few of the interesting things that I've found amongst my friends' posts in the past few days.

Via matociquala, choice paralysis is a real condition! I now have scientific evidence to back up my feelings of helplessness when faced with one choice too many. As I always say whenever some idiot on the TV and radio goes on about people wanting more Choice in health, education or whatever. No, we don't actually want Choice, we want the best option for us (or our loved one or child).

Choice is the way the system works at the moment to try to provide the best fit for everyone, but in a hypothetical ideal situation, we'd be sized up and only offered the exact right thing that we need/want.

It has made me think though and I'm going to try to stop making pointless and unnecessary decisions, such as browsing through mail order catalogues before disposing of them. I need to save my brain power for things that matter.

Via cynthia1960, review of Mamma Mia with a feminist slant. Everything I've seen about this film makes it sound like fun. Abba somehow passed me by first time round but more recently I've developed a fondness for their songs. Their music is ideal for driving home late at night after an evening class, singing along to help keep me awake. It's also good for doing the ironing to.

But the whole thing about the film having been shot with a female gaze has made me absolutely determined to see it on the big screen. When I did the OU course on Issues in Women's Studies, I wrote an essay about the Male Gaze and how women have to watch films at a slant all the time. Not having to do that will make a pleasant change.

Via footlingagain, the robot jellyfish. So elegant, so soothing!

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In other news... The new bathroom (which is how I still refer to it, despite the fact that it no longer contains a bath) is fully functional, though not quite complete. Still to do is: replace the door, replace the radiator with a heated towel rail and make good the holes in the wall. The handles for the under-sink cupboard arrived by post and as they only required screwing on (holes in the door were pre-drilled), we did that ourselves.

It is lovely to be able to have a quick shower in the morning without having to struggle with the rubber shower attachment and juggle the water temperature, which used to take ages to get right, and then have to crouch in the bath trying not to squirt water over the sides.

In other other news... Two more tomatoes will be ready to eat tomorrow. :)

And finally, possibly a contender for the most boring video? (And yet somehow strangely calming.) Dominic Byrne, newsreader on Radio 1's Chris Moyles show, mows his lawn.

Tags: bathroom

It looks like this is going to be one of those holidays where I end up being glad to go back to work for a rest. :)

So far today I have ( amongst other things you can read about behind here... )

- walked along the promenade at Barmouth and then back all along the beach. It had poured down in the morning and though it wasn't actually raining, it was chilly and very very grey. (Sorry about quality. Phone cam again.)



But despite the chill, there were two crazy people swimming! Can you see the little black dots? That's them, out in the breakers.



- shopped in the Co-op on the way home for some food, made dinner and then ate it in front of the telly.

Now off to read Lolcats and then to bed...

Tags: bathroom, exercise, getting stuff done, house makeover
Current Mood: accomplished

Today the new bathroom project took a huge leap forward. The nice young man from the bathroom company came and measured up and we agreed the type of shower unit and loo and washbasin. He has done a sketch on graph paper and will now go and turn it into a wondrous CAD 3D image and tell us how much it will all cost.

Of course I had to do an emergency clean of the kitchen, stairs and hallway and the end of the conservatory that can be seen through the kitchen door/window. Also scrub the bathroom.

But we now have a clean house and the prospect of the new bathroom draws nearer. :)

I didn't get on the computer until about 4:00 pm, but I've tweaked another couple of photos from the WelshFlickrCymru photomeet last Sunday.



( A few more pictures behind here... )

Tags: bathroom, getting stuff done, house makeover, photography
Current Mood: accomplished

As I may have mentioned here previously, both G and I have been procrastinating mightily over getting a new bathroom suite. Basically, neither of us is that fond of baths, the room is tiny and so we'd rather turn it into a shower room. Also it's still the original suite that came with the house, which was built 25 years ago as public housing to a budget and thus was probably not the highest quality suite around. It's basic and functional, but not really a thing of beauty.

The need for a new bathroom is now more pressing as the taps (most of which have been replaced) are now beginning to play up. Intermittently we have no cold water in the kitchen and we've recently had to jam the hot water in the bathroom hand basin permanently off as it was constantly dribbling.

But we just couldn't seem to get over the hurdle of organising a new bathroom. Last year it was the stress of the inspectors in G's college and in recent months, G was too stressed over finishing the PhD to cope with disruption. (He gets very cranky if there's disruption at the best of times.)

It's not that we haven't tried. We've been round B&Q and chosen a suite we liked. But when we tried to use their online system to request a person to come and do a design for us, we had no joy. Twice.

Now I can fully appreciate that the service might not be available in the wilds of Wales, an hour and a half's drive from the nearest B&Q store, but you'd think their system could tell us that, wouldn't you? But no. Just silence.

I had previously tried contacting a local plumber, but he didn't get back to me and I wasn't in a sufficiently gung ho frame of mind at the time to chase him up.

Anyway this afternoon, for some unknown reason, I suddenly felt the urge to try a quick phone call to the local plumber. The phone rang and rang and rang. No answer phone. (Although I'm phonophobic, I finally mastered answerphones a couple of years ago and now quite like them.)

Now what kind of business doesn't even have an answerphone to take calls? It was an immediate turn off. I'm not going to contemplate doing business with someone who's difficult to get hold of. So I crossed him off the list. And went to Google...

Now I've tried online searches several times before, but I must have put in a slightly different search term this time because suddenly I was staring at a company I hadn't found before. One that is a mere 30 mins drive away. One that looks quite hopeful.

So unexpectedly, a project that seemed irrevocably stalled might be in motion at last. I'll be off up the coast to Dyffryn Ardudwy tomorrow to check out this bathroom place and then we'll see what transpires.

Tags: bathroom, getting stuff done, house makeover, procrastination
Current Mood: optimistic