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October 9, 2024

three dripping taps

Filed under: diary — Trefor Davies @ 9:29 am

We have three dripping taps. Hot taps! Hmm. Is there an epidemic of dripping taps or is it just us? Even the tap in the bath, which rarely gets used, is dripping. If anyone has an olympic sized swimming pool that needs filling let me know. Won’t be warm water, fortunately. 

We don’t often bother switching the water on. Dishwasher doesn’t need it, shower doesn’t need it. In fact it isn’t cold enough to have the heating on generally. Installing double glazing a couple of years ago made a huge difference. I know most of you just yawned and said welcome to the twentieth century Tref but our house was built in 1939 when they had never heard of double glazing. It had two fireplaces.

Our previous house in Greetwell Gate had a fireplace in every bedroom as well as downstairs. You can imagine the smoke pouring out of the chimneys. I once accidentally bought a bag of coal instead of smokeless fuel. Boy is the smoke filthy. It wasn’t an accident actually it was for some reason being sold off cheaply but I won’t make that mistake again.

Correction. Two dripping hot taps and one cold. Important to get it right for historical accuracy. Just as big an issue is that taps these days tend to have ceramic workings and not have washers, at least in our house. I’m told that the theory is that ceramic means better long term reliability but the downside is if a tap starts dripping you have to replace the whole tap. This usually means both taps if you want them to match.

Now in da shed. Heating on. Just during the day while I’m here. Last night I went to a scout group committee meeting. We used the room the beavers use but on this occasion there had been a yoga class on just before us. That room was not only warm but smelled of bodies indulging in yoga. Who knew such a smell existed!

The big news is that Akela is retiring at Christmas. This is very big news. She has been a leader in the group since 1976! Wow. There will be thousands of kids, mostly now adult, from Lincoln who will have had her as cub leader. A life spent selflessly helping others. Very impressive. As chairman of the committee I am not in the same league, just turning up as I do for the occasional meeting. 

Even had I wanted to (which I didn’t) I would never have been able to devote one night a week to the scouts. My work life would take me all over the world, sometimes at the drop of a hat. I remember once flying to Los Angeles with just a day or two’s notice for a meeting with Hughes Aircraft. Thirty years ago or so.

As Silicon On Sapphire product manager I used to visit Hughes fairly regularly. Our country manager at the time @Huw Rees and I used to play golf on the Friday of the week I was there. Somehow Friday meetings always got cancelled. How would always fix it for me to stay on the “club level” of the local Hilton/Marriott/whatever it was whereas Ernie Pusey the worldwide VP Sales would get a room on the lower floor. Nobody really liked Ernie. Always sharply dressed he once went to a meeting at Apple, having been told that the dress code was very much casual, in ironed jeans, shirt and tie. The guys at Apple cut his tie off and pinned it alongside others in the meeting room. He he he.

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