Did I ever tell you…

3.5°C, SE strong. Dry.
… How annoying DIY can be?
Yesterday, I spent 4 hours installing replacement cable for the phone extension. The signal has so much interference that voices are difficult to follow. Now the new cable is in, the phone is no better. Next try– change the BT terminal socket; last possible cause, this socket is obviously quite old and turning yellow.

The next; to fit a curtain rail. Normally an easy enough job, unless the drill hits the edge of a brick. But at least you know immediately that there’s a problem and you can re-drill.
Cavity walls are quite a different prospect. There are a range of fixings to solve them. It turns out that many of them don’t work easily. See the photo above.. Both plugs failed so that they could not be un-screwed nor slid out. Each one collapsed inside the wall in a different way. I had to pull which which sprung a big scab of plaster. What a mess, it looks like a read bodge job now.
For the second time, I am waiting for poly-filler to dry. If this were my house, I would fit a thin plank and fit the rail to that. Oh well…

How do I fix this?

5°C, heavy non-stop rain.

Repair: my phone line is often very poor, the crackle & hiss is so loud that I can’t hear what people are saying and it often cuts off my ADSL internet connection. Okay, but it costs £99 to get a British Telecom engineer out and they may decide that it’s an internal fault and not do any repair.

So, now on a very wet Sunday afternoon, I could replace the internet wiring run from the BT box. It’s an intermittent fault, and what do you know- it’s clear right now.

Film: Lebanon

3°C, light rain.
Film: Lebanon, set entirely within a tank during the 1982 war. In many ways it reminded me of Das Boot. A small number of men encased in a steel shell, dripping with oil and dirty water. Some of them viewed the horrors outside through telescopic gun-sights.
The sense of claustrophobia is similar: though I say that, the tank looked bigger inside than I would have expected. The stress and conflict between the crew was there too.
So yeah, a good film.

Rage road.

Movement within a roundabout in a country where traffic drives on the left. Note the clockwise circulation. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

+4°C, clear icy strong wind.
Not safe to ride this morning- black ice covers more than usual today- roads as well as pavements.
Not safe to drive either, look…
Near home there is a tee-junction with a roundabout for left or right. So I got in the right lane and joined the other cars waiting. Then just as I turned, a guy in the left turning lane server right in front of me. Annoyed, I blew the horn and flash lights.
As I follow him onto the turning he stopped. I braked and blew the horn again; is he just not looking or what? Then he moved and stopped again. Horn again, he started then stopped once more, but for longer, much longer.
Then he actually got out or his car. I could see him mouthing something, pointing at the roundabout and waving arms. He’s trying to communicate; I hit the central locking. No point interacting with this life-form. The traffic built up behind jamming the roundabout.
What a puzzling experience. A driver is in such a rush that he doesn’t mind treading on toes. He’s in such an adrenaline haze that he stopped to have a tantrum and wasted his own time as well as ours.
What a depressing way to run your life.
Strange thought though, is the stretch of road where this all happened. I have been subject to three road rage incidents over the last ten years. All of them on this half-mile section of road. Beware.

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• Road Rage (southernbuddhist.wordpress.com)