Our lovely cat brought in a live shrew last night. It took us 40 mins to rescue it. Twice it was behind the hifi which revealed more dust and cobwebs behind it than I would like to admit.
So today I took it apart and cleaned everything. It reminded me why I don’t do it very often. There are 8 mains leads and 5 sets of interconnects. It reminds me how old the technology is. It is quite old stuff. It was such fun, (not). Took me all afternoon.
Anyway, all done.
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Happened to us many years ago. Similar sized rack (the AV system in our case). We were watching TV. I had a visual (S. didn’t) as the mouse wandered in to the lounge…
“There’s a mouse here”
“Don’t be silly….”
“He’s just wandered in, and is watching Springwatch” 
We had to take the rack apart as well!
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But no proven guilty suspects.
You and I hope most people here are trustworthy folk. However, there are lots of unscrupulous people out there, so I understand the bank’s caution and desire to keep the money in a separate account. They could get slated for allowing you to put your money in your account if it was misappropriated, or they could fall foul of the money laundering regs for doing so. My brother had to do this recently for my mum, and it was not difficult to do.
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Decided I didn’t want to walk down the ramp or steps to the prom this morning, so walked up the hill to a bench and enjoyed this view with a coffee. It is a tough life 
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Spent the best part of today trying to determine which bit of the AV system has been playing up…..
It’s a Meridian fully digital DSP 5.1 “active” system. Lovely when it all works but a right PITA when it doesn’t - the HDMI switch, surround processor and all the speakers have to set up “just so”, otherwise strange things happen….or don’t.
Half a day of frustration, including mutterings along the line of “Bin the lot and get a Soundbar”.
Got it jury rigged at the moment (bypassing the 586.2mm surround processor which I suspect is the root of the problem), so I should be OK to watch Ingerland’s forthcoming triumph ( 
), but I’ll need to see if Mr Tech Guy can sort out the proc.
Happy Daze.
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@Filipe and @paulbysea
Thought I might share the outcome of this executor account nonsense.
As mentioned I had already closed down the deceased bank accounts and Barclays and Santander sent balances to my HSBC current account.
This morning I called Santander bereavement team and said you’ve done this but I have cash from selling the deceased car and HSBC require an executor account before they will accept the cash.
Oh they say that is old school we very rarely open executor accounts these days. Just go along to your local Santander branch and they will accept the money. I have a Santander account as a back-up to my main HSBC current account.
Walked into the bank explained the facts and didn’t have to show any paper work. Money now in my Santander personal account.
Now that is customer service.
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You may have come across this already, but with some refunds and alike, senders like to style cheques ‘Exors of…’. Like you, on the basis the sums were nominal, I paid them in to my personal account (I took the GoP just in case). The banks photograph/image all this stuff, and your/our legal responsibility as Executor must be recognised in all this.
Thankfully, most people nowadays use direct payments, and cheque payments are a thing of the past, bar perhaps HMRC(?).
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Flew into Birmingham for onward travel to Wolverhampton and a board meeting tomorrow. Delay and cancellation seems to be the order of the day for trains. Grrrrr.
Willy.
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I signed for a new flat. Biggest mistake of my life, but staying here past a certain point with knackered knees and a big garden 
will be equally as bad.
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Trip into Manchester to get spectacles repaired. Took in the cinema. Thank goodness for water bottles and buses more reliable than trains.
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Spent the last week doing coastal path walking in Pembrokeshire while staying in St David’s. Possibility the most beautiful county in UK - just fabulous views and secluded, empty beaches all over the place. Mrs Duck and myself have been swimming in the sea almost every day. Some of the highlights:
The second photo down is a restaurant in Porthgain called ‘The Shed’. Calls itself a ‘fish and chip bistro’ - does really nice fish dishes in addition to fish and chips. But you have to have the F&C - if they were a football team they would be Champions League. We had a lovely bottle of Muscadet which I know costs £17 and they sell for £35 so only a two times mark up. What a county
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Yup top spot - we were there a couple of years ago. Cottage on Goat Road next to the gallery. Favourite walk was to Solva the harbour inn and back. We were walking around the blue lagoon when some other walkers recommended the shed, spot on zingingly fresh. Did you try the forage resto in town?
Shame it’s such a f#ck of a drive from East Anglia.
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I’m on a cottage on Goat rd as we speak!! But around the bend where it becomes a dead end.
Forage restaurant about to close unfortunately. We were at Shed this evening and tomorrow night at a v good tapas place that’s been open a year. Home Sunday unfortunately
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I understand your reluctance & doubt here Ian, but from what you’ve said about your health over the past couple of years I believe you have done the right thing.
To stay where you are sounds as if life could have quickly become a struggle/misery if you suffer any further health issues.
You may miss your garden but, in your heart of hearts, you know you couldn’t manage it much longer. Rather than worry you silly, you will now have only fond memories of it.
It all sounds for the best & I expect you will come to accept this sooner rather than later.
I am speaking as a near 71 year-old, fortunately in very good health. Loosing my wife in an awful 10 minutes nearly 3 years ago, I am well aware that my circumstances could change in the blink of an eye. Your predicament has really set me thinking & I have to accept that, at some stage (hopefully a few years ahead yet) I will have to take the same decisions that you have had to. Easy to say now, but I doubt that I will agonise for long over what I must do.
Best wishes for a smooth move.
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Had a phone call earlier from the hospital regarding my forthcoming radiotherapy. After a couple of minutes I got confused, and asked the nurse to check the dates, as I had different ones. Shocked to be told that it is now starting next Monday, 13th July, and not the 30th July. Okay, going in early on Monday to get a list of the new dates and times. Fortunately, it will give me some extra weeks recovery time once it’s finished, before we fly to the US for our son’s wedding. Had to spend some time this afternoon rearranging other appointments. Very odd how things happen.
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Thank you, I wake to the sound of birdsong every morning. I have lived here for 55 years. I must confess that I have never appreciated it as much as I do now
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Hi Max, hoping all goes well
best wishes
Ian
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@MWatBR snd @Ian2001 I just wanted to thank you both for your ongoing sharing on this thread. I’m sure there will be further difficulties ahead but lots of positives too.
On a personal level I find it hugely helpful to read the health journeys of others as it communicates to others just how all consuming such things can be. Many people think this stuff is for others and that it will never happen to them when life can in fact turn on a sixpence. They also think you just suck it all up and crack on when in fact it can have huge impacts on mental health and lots of stuff which just doesn’t get talked about.
I try to avoid mentioning anything beyond my sight on here wherever I can but that’s only because I’ve written about it extensively elsewhere. I hope that posting on here has helped you both because from my perspective knowing that so many aspects of health and care are the same for so many really helps others.
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