Trains trains trains!

Over the last few weeks while I've been doing the downstairs bathroom, I've taken over one of the other rooms as my work room to store all my tools and stuff, this has forced the kids In to the front room. This has some advantages, as it give plenty of room for building train tracks. Most of these were built by the little man, with only a few modifications to get all the tracks to fit by myself.

The wooden railway

We started with the wooden railway, and it went through several expansions from its original, simple loop. As I said, most of it was done by the little man, but it occasionally needed some readjustment when two 'male' or 'female' ends came together, or when curves didn't quite meet up. 

The final layout

Track master

Once we got bored to the wooden railway, we advanced on to track master. Again most of this was done by the little man, with only a few modifications from myself to get the tracks to fit. My one main contribution to the railway was the bridge across the middle.

The bridge

This was fun to build, and a bit of a challenge, but it worked really well and the little man really loved it. It is something that we've not done before and was only possible thanks to the Thomas's daring drop track that the little man got for Christmas. Although, I think Grandad has got us all beaten.

Grandads railway

The train bug seems to run in the family, although grandads railway is a lot more expensive and complex, but the little man loves playing with it and now Grandad has bought the little man his own (second hand) train and carriages, Grandad also isn't worried about any of his special GWR trains getting damaged!

Homemade bread

If your a regular reader of this blog (if indeed there are any regular readers!) you'll notice that things seem to go in stops and starts, ill not post for a few weeks and then it seems like I'm posting every other day. Well, that's pretty much true, I haven't posted for weeks and now I've got over half a dozen posts sitting waiting to be posted (and written in some cases). Hopefully I'll get some time Over the next few days to get some posts sorted and up, but for now I've found a new passion.

Ok, passion maybe a bit strong, but its fun and I've been enjoying playing around with it. I've also got some plans for trying out some of the other fun recipes. The bread maker was a present for Christmas from the brother inlaw, not the easiest thing to pack in a suitcase and carry home on a plane! It eventually followed us home via Royal Mail, and was put straight to use. 

The machine

So far it has made only a couple of loaves, and only basic brown and white loaves, but they have all been a hit with the family, especially the bairns. I'm planning on making an olive loaf, a cheese loaf and I'm also considering making some sort of chocolate chip loaf, although this is going to need some extra research. This is the great thing about having your own bread maker, you can just experiment with things and see how they turn out, if it doesn't work, well, just bin it and start again. The bread mixes are pretty cheap, not quite as cheap as buying basics bread from the supermarket, but more fun and like I said, it gives the opportunity to play around.

First run

The only issue seems to be that the bread collapses in the middle a little. It seems to rise perfectly right until the end and then collapse for the final bit. It doesn't seem to affect the bread at all, especially not the taste. So I have yet to find out how to fix this issue, although I don't really care.

I'm really excited for the new bread maker, there are a whole range of options and possibilities. I'll post up as and when I get around to trying some exotic mixes!

Car troubles

So the car saga continues. Just when I think I've gotit sorted, something else rears its ugly head. While I'm still trying sort the rear wheel hub, 3 attempts later and still no joy!, there is now another matter that needs attention.

The passenger headlight has been a struggle to get right, as the beam has been way off but I got it sorted. I lined it all up using the garage door and was pretty happy with it and the garage said they would fine tune it for me, mostly out of sympathy i think. Great, apart from one minor issue, its a left hand driver headlight! So, I had to source and fit a RHD unit, which isn't as easy as it sounds.

Fitting a headlight.

As you can see, fitting requires stripping off the bumper. Fairly simple, just long winded and a pain. Managed to clean and polish the drivers headlight, so that's nice and clear now. 

The car should have been back in for its mot retest but the new hub, brand spanking new instead of second d hand, was supposed to arrive by UPS48 on Tuesday, but didn't turn up till Thursday, so more like UPS96. This meant the garage didn't have time to dealwith the car before we headed off on holiday, so the cars back sitting on the drive, not good.

Hopefully it will all be sorted as soon as I get home. I'm really looking forward to having her back in the road!

Bathroom update

So there has been some progress on the bathroom, not a lot but some is better than none. With the shower cubicle done, except putting the doors on, we started on the walls. The tiles are huge, well, bigger than anything else that I have used before, 600x300. The main tiles are flat but the 3rd tile up is textured, acting as a boarder tile.

The main wall, minus radiator.

Sink plumbing.

So, things look to be progressing, however, they have hit a bit of a wall. All the whole tiles have been put on the wall and its now about the half tiles. Although I have an electric tile saw, its getting started that's the problem. Once I get going with it all, I'm sure it will start flying up again. If I can get the main wall done teats a big chunk of the tiling done, although round the window is going to be a pain, as there are a lot of tiles that need cutting.

The big challange is going to be grouting. The walls are not very flat, behind where the radiator sits the tiles are sitting on a thin smear of adhesive but at the top, the tile are sitting on about half an inch of adhesive. If I just grout the tiles, it would end up using massive amounts of adhesive, at great expense for not a lot of gain. So I'm looking in to other options to pad out the bits behind the tiles, so I only have to grout the actual space between the tiles. I'm sure it will all come together in the end.

In other news, these arrived. The new velux window for the upstarira bathroom. Its an opaque window for a bit of privacy, even though the only people who can see in are those flying over in a plane! Oh well, the wife is happier with it that way and I'm not fussed. Not sure when it will be going in, probably not until I've finished the downstairs bathroom, so it could be a while!