Update on the water nightmare.
Even with the supply turned off there has been 1000's of litres going through the meter.
Waterboard arrived Tuesday and with a gadget like a stethoscope they found the leak. It is of course on my side of the meter
They are going to effect a repair
It means digging up my back garden
I rang the Insurance company - they do not want to know and will not be contributing
I pleaded - but no chance
So that is it then. The waterboard say I have to pay for all the water that has passed through the meter
I will be honest with you I do not know which way to turn now
It seems grossly unfair as I have done nothing wrong, the leak was undetectable without specialist equipment, it is the waterboard's choice only to read these meters once in 6 months
Any suggestions

I got up early for work and had my tea and cornflakes, just as I was getting in the car I started to feel "under the weather" Nothing specific, I got to the big roundabout which is about 4 miles away and whilst waiting at the traffic lights I was trying to decide whether to go to work or turn around and come home. But I am a workaholic so I pressed on knowing that if I was ill I could get home in less than 30 minutes as I was very local today. I did get quite a bit done, but there was definitely no sparkle in me. Decided against the gym given how I felt and settled for a shower and hair wash before tea. I was expecting to meet my friend at the airport at around 6:45pm. Once again his flight was delayed and it did not land until 8:15pm. We caught up on the gossip and now he has left for a 2.5 hour drive down to West Wales. He looked wasted and admitted he had been "on the lash" all weekend in N.Ireland and had been unable to face any food today. Still he hadn't drunk anything except tea since 10:00am today so he is safe to drive. He did look thin though.
I feel better now than I did and won't be here too late this evening, just want to catch with whatever you guys n gals have been up to. See I am in at No.2 - world must have gone mad

Just seen this in the Radio Times

"Meet the Bloggers"

Radio 4 (92.4 fm)

9:30am - 10:00am

Tuesday 29th August

I will record this on my DAB - maybe some of you are famous eh?

Arrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Top right above advert click on X (next to some German word looks like Schlieben) this CLOSES THE ADVERT

http://www.upthedeise.org/coppermine/albums/userpics/Mencanmultitask.asf

http://www.upthedeise.org/coppermine/albums/userpics/Album_Covers%5B1%5D.pdf

http://www.upthedeise.org/coppermine/albums/userpics/meanparents.wmv

Up around 9:00am, the weather was glorious. Had a bit of brekkie and got my gym gear on. Down the gym 10:30 - 12 noon. Surprisingly busy in there for a Bank Holiday.Lots of other females in their 40's, 50's and 60's so did have a chat with 2 of them. They had had programmes drawn up gor them and were working though them. I was offered this for £12.50 but I can make my own "circuit" to be honest.
Home then to a hot shower and some preening
Washed all the towels and gym stuff, as there is a lovely stiff warm breeze. Had a cuppa in the garden, catching some rays and blasted out Planet Rock for a while
Had a large banana for lunch around 1:30pm and read some blogs, replied to some comments etc.
Had a coffee with my neighbour Mike and caught on his gossip - he has a very active sex life - unlike me! After coffee he wanted to cut his lawns and as his strimmer was without strimmer wire and ferreted around in my garage and found some for him.
Whilst he gardened I washed my hard floors and I have to say I was ashamed at the colour of the water
Then a quick whoosh around the house with polish and vacuum cleaner and now the place is like a palaceD
Did the tiny bit of ironing I had and now I am free to mess on here for a while before catching up with my neighbour again around 5 ish.
Tonight I want to sort out putting some photos in frames - got a nice 2-photo frame in Hay-on-Wye on Saturday at the church fete which was being held in the buttermarket. I do love a bargain
Work again tomorrow and I am hoping to get away on the dot because I wnat to do a 45 minute gym session, rush home shower and wash my hair, before collecting my friend from the airport (he leaves his car on my drive - so much cheaper than airport parking). But I will need to leave here by 18:45 so I am not sure if this can be achieved.
So that is me today. If I get a bit of time I might do some more Spanish, otherwise I will do 30 minutes tomorrow lunchtime as that SPanish software is on my work laptop

Well I am having a lunch break so here goes:-

1: What's your current favourite band/ singer?
Too many really!

2: OSX or Windows?
Windows XP

3: What makes you happy?
Good weather and good company with free time to enjoy both

4: What do you really want to achieve?
A permanent state of happiness and fulfillment!

5: What is your greatest strength?
My outgoing nature

6: If you could travel to anywhere past or future where would you go
and why?
A week last Thursday then I would have had the Euromillions
numbers for the £34m!

7: What's your favourite place to be?
Anywhere near water, rivers, oceans

8: What mobile phone do you use?
One is a Sony Erricson - no idea what the other is! (True) Just
use them for phoning

9: What car do you drive?
This week's hire car is a Vauxhall Astra

10: What do you consider the worst thing ever?
Child abuse . . I don't see how people can do what they do.

11: What would make your life complete?
Meeting a wonderful man who is both mentally stimulating and
sexy

12: Reckon you could take your boss on and win?
Only known him a few weeks (contact time less than 2 hours) so I
don't know

13: Have you ever asked for a pay rise and got it?
Yes

14: What type of driver are you?
Calm

15: Do you dye your hair, now or ever?
Occasional highlights

16: Favourite film and why?
Company of Wolves by Neil Jordan.

17: How many of your friends would you trust with your life?
1 or 2

18: What's your highest level of qualification (academic or work)?
Post Graduate Certificate in COnstrucion Management and my
Professional Diplomas

19: What's the make of your camera(s)?
Live Pix 4 - don't know who made it though!

20: PS2 or Xbox?
I don't have any toys.

21: What are the colour of your eyes?
Very dark brown - sometimes they look black

22: Do you imagine your blog friends to look different until you see
a photo?
I don't think about it.

Thought about mine after answering a question from Adamantixx earlier,

here they are (what are yours?)

Go paragliding off the top of the Black Mountains!

Learn to canoe

RIde a Harley-Davidson down Route 66 (for a little way!)

Pull off a George Soros type stockmarket coup!

Fly in a hot air balloon

Speak fluent Spanish

Write a successful novel

Fall in love forever with a man who loves me

Write a story good enough to go on Radio 4

Own a Mercedes Sports car

I am about to enrol on Year 2 Spanish so I was very pleased when one of my new colleagues brought in some Spanish Cd's on Friday. I now have a massive Dictionary on my laptop and loads of Spanish lessons, some are very simple just using flipcards. 1st it shows you the Spanish and then at a click of the mouse you get the English and these cards are organised into groups i.e places, or food, or beverages etc.
I must log off in a moment and spend a bit of time practicing - especially I just nagged Isadora101 to do the same!

Here are some examples of people who had the verbal skills to make their points in far more elegant ways. I hope they give you a chuckle, and perhaps some examples the next time you need to "put someone in their place!"

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."
- Winston Churchill

"A modest little person, with much to be modest about."
- Winston Churchill

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure."
- Clarence Darrow

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary."
- William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"
- Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it."
- Moses Hadas

"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know."
- Abraham Lincoln

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."
- Groucho Marx

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."
- Mark Twain

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends."
- Oscar Wilde

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend ... if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second ... if there is one."
- Winston Churchill, in reply.

If you have a blogger friend on here and get the chance to meet I can recommend it

I met a fellow blogger today and really enjoyed his company. He was a breath of fresh air. Interesting, articulate, amusing and thoughtful.

I hope now we are real friends and will meet again when time and life allow.

So all you bloggers - go for it and brighten your day

Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

* Drive carefully. It’s not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.

* If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone €20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others .

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won’t have a leg to stand on.

* Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.

* Since it’s the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

* The second mouse gets the cheese.

* When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.

* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

* We could learn a lot from crayons...

Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

British men want to find a wealthy woman who works to support them, a dating survey revealed today.

Research into the preferences of 1,000 singletons found that the amount of money a potential date earns is important to 84% of men, compared to just 16% of women.

And the survey for dating website LoopyLove.com found 63% of men would be happy to stay at home and relax while their partners went out to work.

But unfortunately for those British men who want to put their feet up, only 6% of women said they would be prepared to support both themselves and their partner.

Despite their desire to find a rich woman, 82% of male respondents said they would flash the cash around on a date to impress the opposite sex, compared to just 18% of women.
And while 87% of people questioned in the survey said they'd never lied about their salary to impress, 74% believed other people exaggerated their earnings to new dates.

Shimrit Elisar, head of marketing at LoopyLove.com, said: "With high profile women like Demi Moore and Cameron Diaz dating and marrying younger guys, it's no wonder that men aspire to have an attractive, rich, older woman.

"The taboo has been broken and we've seen this trend spreading from celebs to members of LoopyLove.com and the British public."

The survey also found that the youngest age group (19-21) were much more concerned with looks (63%) and none were interested in money. But not one respondent over 43 said looks mattered in the search for true love.

While the vast majority of women (95%) look for a man more educated than themselves, 80% of men want a woman who is not as well educated.

Scottish singletons said they focus on personality rather than looks or intelligence and 90% of them prioritise love above their careers.

In the Midlands, however, 39% of people prioritise a high salary over finding love, while in the North East 92% want to date someone older and richer and 74% want to be supported by their partners.

A third of women in the North West were insistent their dates pay not only for their drinks but those of their friends as well, but only 4% of men said they would fund their partners in life.

The Welsh are most likely to show off their cash to impress, and are twice as willing as the rest of the UK to support their other halves.

And in the South, 37% of respondents would be impressed if their date turned up in head-to-toe designer labels.

A Staffordshire man has escaped serious injury after being struck by lightning.
Alistair Fellows, 43, from Stretton in Burton-on-Trent, had stepped out of his van during a storm in Tutbury when the bolt struck him.

Mr Fellows said he felt nothing at the time, his arm only beginning to swell five hours later. He was also left with slightly impaired hearing and sight.

Colleagues at Burton Albion FC, where he works in maintenance, have nicknamed him "Flash" and "Lightning".

Close calls

Mr Fellows said: "There was a flash, and the thunder and lightning came at the same time.

"I didn't realise anything had happened until a bit later on.

"My arm started to swell up, and my wife noticed that there was a mark on my arm."

The experience has caused Mr Fellows to reflect on the close calls which have dogged him over the years.

People just can't believe how lucky/unlucky I am

Alistair Fellows

From the age of 12 until last Thursday, when the lightning struck, he has had four lucky escapes with electricity.

As a boy he suffered a shock as he pulled a plug from a socket, and twice in his 20s he narrowly escaped injury - once when he sliced through the live cable of his electric lawnmower, and again when he hacksawed through a shed cable he did not realise was live.

Toothbrush in ear

Mr Fellows also broke his skull twice in his teens.

He also told the BBC that, in 1990, he had to go to hospital to have a toothbrush extracted from his ear after he fell in the shower. "That was embarrassing," he said.

No serious problems occurred from 1992 until 2004, when Mr Fellows was seriously injured when his car was hit by a lorry.

"People just can't believe how lucky/unlucky I am," he said.

"My wife is going to get me a crash helmet for my 50th birthday."

I was supposed to be in Plymouth tonight enjoying a nice evening with my daughter, but things conspired against my plan and now I am here. Shame as I was so looking forward to catching up with her as it has been a month now
She is coming home next weekend
Meanwhile work is demanding as ever but I am still enjoying the new job (9 weeks now)I spend about 40% of my time in Wales now during the working week and it is so nice - so many characters and all great fun. My colleagues on the other side of the bridge are nice but there are not so many "characters", they are more reserved in their behaviour and not as open apart from the Somerset ones and our only cockney! Having worked all over the UK it has always interested me. Geordies and scousers are always open and amusing, warm and friendly and I used to enjoy visiting the north-east and the north-west of England and Northern Ireland was execellent and I had many a good night out with my colleagues some of whom now I count as good friends.
I am still keeping up the gym and went on Tuesday and Wednesday and hope to get there again tomorrow evening, but I must cut the lawn if it is dry tomorrow as it is looking very scruffy indeed and the forecast for Sunday/Monday isn't brilliant. Can't do it Saturday as I am off out for the day to Hay-on-Wye where I am meeting a fellow blogger for coffee and a good old chinwag. There are lots of my blog friends I think it would be nice to meet - maybe we should have a bloggers' convention!

My father went to my house today. It has according to the water meter consumed another 16,000 litres in just a few days. Incredible. Where will this all end?
Confused. Me too. Will let you all know the outcome and thanks for all the messages and emails of support and suggestions received yesterday.

Wcg x

For those who have followed the blog since the great house flood of 10th March 2006 you will be amazed that the water bill has just arrived and is for £1789.00
This is for the apparent 736 cubic litres of water that leaked into my house foundations.
I lived there for 63 days. On day 63 leak was detected and repaired.
736 cubic litres.May not sound like much but this actually is just a smidgin under 1.3 million pints of water.
This cannot be right, that is 14 pints of water a minute every minute of every hour for 63 days.I would have drowned, the street would have been underwater. The town would be no more.
Can the watervoard be correct? How can one women, with 2 showers and washing machine consume 1.3 million pints of water in 63 days?
It took 63 days for the leak to be know, that is when a small bit of plaster started to bubble off the wall - the house was 9 weeks old.
Depressed - yes I truly am, there is no way on this earth I am paying this bill.
Yours sick to her stomach and worried half to death,
Wcg

.

Cancer (June 21 - July 22)

Nothing especially remarkable will happen today. You will get a strange urge to talk like Ziggy Marley, but it will pass.

What does yours say?

http://www.humorscope.com/index.html

WOMAN'S POEM

Before I lay me down to sleep,
I pray for a man, who's not a creep,
One who's handsome, smart and strong.
One who loves to listen long,
One who thinks before he speaks,
One who'll call, not wait for weeks.
I pray he's gainfully employed,
When I spend his cash, won't be annoyed.
Pulls out my chair and opens my door,
Massages my back and begs to do more.
Oh! Send me a man who'll make love to my mind,
Knows what to answer to "how big is my behind?"
I pray that this man will love me to no end,
And always be my very best friend.

MAN'S POEM

I pray for a deaf-mute nymphomaniac with huge boobs
who owns a liquor store and a golf course. This
doesn't rhyme and I don't give a shit.

Ok got up early, couldn't sleep much. Had 2 cups of tea and a bowl of cornflakes and then listened to the Archers Omnibus edition.
It was sunny first thing as I sat on the back doorstep with my tea, but now it is very overcast and threateing rain.
Suppose I ought to get dressed.....
Back later

I just want to runaway and pretend to be somebody else.

My favourite hurling team the Kilkenny Cats are through to the All Ireland Senior Hurling Championships agaiinst Cork on Sunday 3rd September D. Tickets will be rarer than hens' teeth. That is not a problem because there is nowhere better to see the match than in a cosy pub in Kilkenny. Flights booked now (to Dublin from Cardiff) are cheap as chips D and there are some great hotel deals on in kilkenny if booked NOW . So I rang my daughter and she can be home in time for the flight Friday but has to be at a Naval training base at the crack of dawn on the Monday - so there is just no way she can go - sob sob . I don't want to go on my own but I don'r want to not be there either. Dilemma.....

Today I was on the roof of the Lead Shot Tower - pictured in the middle of the picture above. Spectacular views and I did take some photos but have not downloaded them yet. We had some work taking place there today and it was the first time I had ever seen it. Its name gives away its previous purpose -

The first shot tower in the world was built on Redcliffe Hill by plumber William Watts. In 1782 he invented a way to make perfectly round lead shot by pouring molten lead through a sieve and allowing it to drop from a height into water. When his tower was demolished for road widening in 1968, it was replaced by this 140-foot tall reinforced concrete landmark. It no longer makes shot, but as a listed building will be preserved