Double dose today. Making things last.

Happy Easter everyone, and what are you doing on this cool and breezy Sunday? The post today is a double  dose of this and that, to make up for a lack of words yesterday. But not to worry, if I go awol you can be sure I will come back. I am spending time working out the details of my forthcoming walk, so my brain is a bit preoccupied at the moment.

Yesterday morning I got my arse into gear and did the 5k Parkrun. Another personal best which now stands at 34 minutes 43 seconds. Yippeeeee. Got a bit of a stitch half way round but not as much as before. Won't be long before I crack the 30 minutes I am aiming for. 

This morning I have been engaging in a bit of DIY, that is, making things last a bit longer by mending something that's broken. My plastic gate which I found in a skip several years ago has taken a bit of a battering in the wind, and is starting to crack on two opposite corners. It's not like it's a security gate, not lockable, it just fills a gap. The cats can get round the side of it.  

The two posts are hollow so I bashed a piece of broken gazebo frame into the ground with a big hammer, and slid the gate onto it. The other side was just loose propped up against the wheelie bin.

How to mend the broken bit. Drill two holes in the cross bar and secure to the post with cable ties.

The bit that was the foot at the bottom is now moved to the top to make the post on the other side a bit stronger, and cable ties attached to hold it together.

Now a new pole is bashed into the ground, it's a metal tube from a long gone small plastic greenhouse. Always keep bits that might come in useful. This is about two feet high. It doesn't need to be the same height as the other pole, because the idea is to lift the gate up to open it. 

And there you have it, no more flapping in the wind. The gate will last a bit longer. Mayze wants to come in, she can get round the side of it.

Bugsy is in his favourite place, in the back window. Not much sun today, overcast and windy.

Oh my, look at naughty Heidi. She loves to get up onto the greenhouse roof. She ruins the plastic sides with her claws as she climbs up the corner post. Good job the roof is heavy duty plastic and can stand her weight. She is looking over the hedge into the garden at the back of mine. She spends a lot of time over there, good job they are cat lovers.

My raised beds have got some wooden posts and cross bars on them because I used to drape plastic over  to make a mini polytunnel. I don't bother now but have left the posts because they are handy to hold onto when I am working on the beds. Heidi walks up and down on them like a balancing act at the circus. 

Look at me mum, I can wash my belly and not fall off.

And I can balance on three legs while I wash my foot. She is so funny.

Hey look at this. I've scanned and copied my final two bills from British Gas. They are telling me I am in credit, which they returned. All well and good, my new supplier is Ebico, I moved across in January, so I don't expect to hear anything more from BG. 

Now what's going on here? I have three more final bills, dated February, March, and April, all exactly the same and all stating I have nothing to pay. Now why would they waste time and money to send these? It doesn't make sense. Let's see if another one turns up in May.

In the meantime things have been sorted about the mix up with the meter readings with Ebico, and it should all run smoothly from now on. I have got rid of the standing charge that Brit Gas wanted to charge me, now I am only paying for the gas and electricity which I use, after I have used it. I don't get penalized for choosing to pay quarterly on receipt of a bill. So all's good.

Enjoy the rest of the day, and don't forget, it's a Bank Holiday tomorrow so you don't have to go to work :o) unless you are retired in which case every day is a Bank Holiday. Catch you tomorrow. Toodle pip.