Decorating

It’s a few days now since I did it but at the end of last week I achieved something that I am really proud of, I decorated Nat’s bedroom, Ok so maybe not the most earth shattering achievement you might think! And to some its nothing special.

Originally when we got the paint the idea was that we were going to take up an offer, by Chris & Hannah, to decorate her room for us, it was a very generous offer on their part and we were grateful for it, however when it came to look at obvious dates etc to do the decorating it became apparent that we would do well to take advantage of Steven being in respite the back end of last week, to decorate, as we could put Nat into his room for the duration, we would have used the weekend but it turned out to be a busy weekend, with a BBQ on the Saturday afternoon and a church picnic on the Sunday afternoon so there was no way we could do it then! That meant that we couldn’t take Chris & Hannah up on their offer as they would be at work when we needed to decorate, or at least Hannah would for definite, which is why I ended up doing the decorating, whether I liked it or not.

I spent basically all day Thursday and Friday morning painting and a couple of hours Friday afternoon putting up her border and then I spent 3 hours Monday putting together a bed that was supposed, according to the instructions, to take just 1 hour! OK I wasn’t rushing but I wasn’t moving that slow.

I am pleased partly because we have given her room a completely new makeover, with paints, curtains and bedding all that she chose, and all complementing the lamp shade she chose the other week.

We also got her a new bed a space saving ‘Cabin Bed’ and are awaiting delivery of her new, matching wardrobe, before we can complete the job.

OK so still not got a clue why this is so earth shattering? Well in short its because I managed to paint her room, and I have had a pretty acute paint phobia! The reasons for the phobia are complex and it would be inappropriate to go into details on here but believe me this is a real achievement which goes way beyond the physical effort required to decorate.

So, in short yes I am pleased at the results, Nat loves her new look room and rightly so because it looks great, IMHO, but also I managed to face one of my big phobias to tackle the job.

So I am sorry that I deprived Chris and Hannah of the opportunity to do the decorating but at the same time I am really glad that I did manage to do it myself because it has given me something to be really proud of, being able to say that I managed to achieve it on my own gives me a real sense of achievement and ‘moving on’ in life.

Skegness by the sea

I am starting to write this post quite late at night just to occupy my brain (what brain I hear you say!) for a while but will drop off to sleep soon so will have to pick up from where I left off tomorrow.

OK so 4^th July might not be a special day in the UK, but for our US cousins it certainly is, it’s the day they celebrate their independence (from us I believe, so why we wish them a happy independence day I am not too sure!) anyhow, we spent this 4^th July in Skegness of all places!

We went for a trip to the seaside! Normally these days we go to Felixstowe if we want a day trip to the seaside, because it takes just over 2 hours to get there, Skeg is about 2hr 45 minutes, we used to go to Cromer a lot but found that was too long (at 2hrs 30m) now we have kids, we have also been to wonderful Hunstanton but never been to Skeg, would not have normally considered it but we have a good friend who resides (hope you like how posh I make it sound Sue!) in Lincolnshire, we got to know her at Grapevine many years ago and have seen her there every year except for last year (she normally stewards) she had a wedding to attend last year so was not able to make it, this year we have made the decision not to go ourselves, personal reasons largely centred around my health and the fact that we just feel its too much to cope with for us and the kids now they are getting that bit older, maybe in a few years time we might give it a try again, but then we were also not impressed with various aspects of the event over the past couple of years, except that as we stop going they seem to have started gearing up more for disabled facilities! Ironic I know!

Anyhow, having not seen Sue for almost 2 years and no signs of when we might see her we had arranged to meet at Skeg, which we duly did, the journey there was a little frustrating because the roads are pretty slow anyhow and it wasn’t helped by 2 major roads along our rote being closed, requiring fairly lengthy diversions on slower roads, and the re-awakening of my navigation skills with the map (Sat Nav works fine until there are unexpected road closures and it certainly had not expected this one!) just as well I can still read a map!

Anyhow, we got there in one piece and meet up with Sue, pretty easy to do actually, and headed onto the beach, the beach is flat and sandy, gritty sand but sand none the less, it was a beautiful day with lovely weather, it was a little cooler than it clearly has been inland but that’s no bad thing, some of us still managed to get sunburnt, we had a long time on the beach, punctuated by going off the beach for some lunch. And the kids have been so well behaved today, Nat was thoroughly entertained.

It was great to see Sue again and we chatted a fair bit, when Nat would let us!

Skeg was very busy but seemed to cope with the crowds, there were loads of takeaway kiosks and the like along, and just off, the front, as well as plenty amusements but there was little point in going spending money on amusements when the kids were happy to be on the beach.

We were impressed with the prices of food and drink in Skeg, large ice cream (probably the nicest whipped ice cream I have tasted in a long time) for 65p! would have cost about 1.30 in Bedford and other places we go!

Although we were less impressed with the car parking charges, £1 per hour and we were not even exempt from it because of the blue badges (disabled persons parking permit, as opposed to disabled badges, to the uneducated!) and the cost of spending a penny has been seriously impacted by rising inflation and credit crunches, it now costs 20p in Skeg, 20p come on what is that all about? They didn’t even have gold plated taps. There is no way that we do 20X as much wee as we used to when it only cost 1p, although I did my best to get my moneys worth when I did use the facilities, it was a bit of a surprise though for Joy who took Nat to the toilets, from our location on the beach, leaving her handbag with us, only to have to treck all the way back to get her 20p and go back again!

After our afternoon beach session we ‘bribed’ nat off the beach with the offer of a donkey ride, yes that’s right they have donkey rides on the beach, she was scared at first but by the end of the ride she was loving it, thanks in no small part to the way that Sue was in encouraging her to enjoy it, she has a real gift with our kids, or should I say she is a real gift for us with our kids? Time she relocated to Bedford I think J

Anyhow, after a very good day we drove back, much more straightforward this time as we were able to ensure our route didn’t take in the closed sections of road and there seemed to be less cars too.

We are please with both our kids, they did us proud today, being so well behaved and a real pleasure to take out for the day, we even got away with nat not askign to go on lots of rides during the day.

So, over all, Skeg is a really good seaside resort, there were plenty of things to occupy the kids had the weather not been so fantastic, the beach is level and sandy, which is ideal for us, although the sand is that fine gritty (sharp sand) type which isn’t quite so nice and its colour made it look a little dirty, but other than that the beach was good, plenty of space for the crowds.

Parking, well over priced but seemed to be plenty of it although with our 'cavy mobile' which is like a Transit van sized vehicle, the car park nearest the beach wasn’t accessible as there was a height limit, 1” below our height, didn’t want to chance the barrier, and the one we did go into the spaces and layout made it very tight so difficult to manoeuvre in and out of space and quite tight to get the kids in and out of the side door, we managed to get on the end of a row which made it easier. When will they learn that generally cars need more space these days than they did back in 1960 whenever it was that the standard car parking space was invented? There was also a totally inadequate number of disabled parking spaces so these were all taken by the time we got there.

Toilet facilities, done enough on that, the disabled toilets would have probably been too small to meet current regulations and were very tight, fortunately we do most of Steven’s changes in the car, the access to the toilet, turnstile barriers where you pay also mean that mums with buggy’s cant use them so I think most of them have acquired a Radar Key which didn’t help the length of queue at the disabled toilet.

Plenty of food outlets and places selling beach good and they all seemed reasonably priced and clean. And access generally was very good, didn’t like the wheelchair accessibility at McDonalds because they only had one route to the front door wide enough for wheelchair access and that was right next to the bike park so when, as happened, someone lays a bike down instead of standing it up the wheelchair access is totally lost! That’s a real bad point.

We would definatelly consider going back again some time but only really if it was too meet up with Sue or someone else as it is a bit of a treck from us, also nto realy suitable if yopu want a quiet and isolated beach, the amusements are located convenient to access but not in your face if you want to keep the kids from begging to go on every ride on offer.

I didn’t start writing this as a ‘report’ on the resort but perhaps I should have done, I might take up reviewing places we visit, particularly from our disability issue perspective, as it might be useful to other folk as well.

Coffee, Walking and Orchids

Last week I posted a photo of an orchid that I had found at Harold & Odell Country Park, whilst out walking, well I say I ‘found’ in truth we, myself and my wife, were walking round and another couple walking the opposite direction told us of its whereabouts.

Anyhow, the photo that I took is, as far as I am aware, the only evidence that a wild orchid was growing in the country park, I was round there again with one of the pastors from church, he had been in the office this morning and one of our office colleagues (Meryl) who had read about the orchid had told him to ask me where it was! So we set about walking round but also to have another look at/for this orchid.

Major issue!!! When I got to the spot where the orchid stood they had cut the grass and, with it, the orchid, the orchid is no more!! I don’t know enough about orchids, will it come back? Or is it now lost to the world? If there is this one does that not mean there must be others nearby? If there are none nearby how did that one get there?

Anyhow, for now I shall treasure that photo as it is the first, and maybe the only, time that I have ever seen a wild orchid growing in the UK.

Aside from the sad news of the demise of the Wild Orchid in Harold & Odell Country Park, I am having a reasonable, if busy, week, yesterday I meet Chris J, our youth worker, in town for coffee, followed by a rather long and tiring meeting with our family social worker (all families of children with disabilities have to have a social worker appointed if they wish/need to access any social service provision, such as respite care etc) to go through various documents and to see the children.

Today, as previously mentioned, I was out at coffee this morning with David G, one of our pastors, followed by lunch at Joy’s parents.

Tomorrow it’s the turn of the other pastor to take me out to coffee, followed (I think!) by lunch with Chris J and Hannah (his wife) but that really depends on how they get on with packing as they are having a house move this weekend, I say ‘having a house move’ because they are actually going to be away for the weekend, having won a free holiday, so Hannah’s parents and a few others are going to do the actual moving, well at least that was the last I heard but Hannah was getting a bit nervous about that idea and worried that it might all go wrong, so was trying to see if they could move their holiday, I say go for it girl, just go away for the weekend and leave others to sort it, its not very often you will have the chance to sit back and let everyone else do all the work! And its not every day you win a free weekend away.

Then Thursday we, myself and Joy, will have a day out of some sort, as we have made our practice once a week, currently on a Thursday.

And Friday, we have planned to go off for a walk, and probably a drink too I shouldn’t wonder, with Meryl, aforementioned office colleague and very good friend, the idea was to take a walk round HOCP to show her the Wild Orchid, obviously the wild Orchid isn’t there to be seen but I guess I could print a copy of the picture out and put it on the grass where the orchid once was, perhaps make a memorial plaque and have a formal ceremony to mark the spot where Orchids once stood tall and have now been mown to the ground, on the other hand perhaps not J but there is certainly no reason why Meryl cant come out with us, then that’s most of the people I would normally see IN the office that will have seen outside of the office, for coffee, in 1 week!

Talking of the office, I am really not sure that I will have the time to fit that back into my schedule when my period of sick leave ends, so may have to forgo that, do you think that anyone would notice if I just didn’t go back?

So, that’s about how this week is shaping up.

Although there are 2 other things I am mildly excited about, I mentioned Chris & Hannah having a free holiday well the reason is because they have managed to get picked to go and review the setup, Butlins, a bit of a sales thing, give people free holidays in exchange for honest and accurate (they hope positive) reviews of the place, the relevance will be clear in the next few paragraphs.

I have discovered that Tyndale Publishers, Christian book publishers, they are the ones who publish the New Living Translation of the bible, which just happens to be my favourite translation. Well they publish lots of books and they are after book reviewers, basically it works like this, you check out the books they have available, read a brief intro to the book, then decide on which grabs your fancy, you request a copy of it, which is sent out to you free of charge, you read then submit a review, the review has to be posted on your own blog on a book sales site that sells the book in question, e.g. Amazon and, I believe, a copy sent to Tyndale as well, a fair deal to me, I have requested a book and am awaiting its arrival in order that I can read and review it, now to me it will encourage me to read and absorb the info in the book far more, most of what I read I have forgotten about in 10 minutes but I will have to work a bit harder at that, we will have to see how I get on with that as my memory is definitely not helped by the depression but I think it will give me a good focus, they do have a good range of books and I was able to pick one that really fitted where I am at right now so it will be good to see what I get out of the whole experience, it also gives me something a little different to blog about as well. OK so its not like getting a free holiday but its still pretty good, something for nothing.

ALSO, and this is perhaps even better if I get it! I have applied to be the reviewer for a camera, a Digital SLR camera, they wanted to know what experience I had with cameras and how keen a photographer I was as well as having a couple of sample pictures to see the kind of standard of my photography, currently I use a Fuji Finepix f8000 which is like a ‘hybrid’ camera, its not got changeable lens but its much bigger than a compact, it has a bigger photo sensor and larger lense size so it does do a better quality job than the standard compact but its still basically a compact, so I don’t know whether I stand any chance of getting this opportunity, which would entail me being given a free camera in exchange for an honest and fair review of the product. But I thought it was worth a shot (if you will pardon the pun!) because I do enjoy photography and to have the chance to have some really nice kit is nice.

But that has started me thinking, what about other companies? Are there other organisations and companies who are giving stuff away totally free in return for reviews and commentaries on the products/services?

Certainly if there are such companies about I would love to know how you get to hear about them more often as I would be keen on trying stuff out and more than happy to provide feedback on the product, as long as you accept it will be honest.

So, if you are reading this and you happen to be the decision maker at a company who might be looking for people to try out and review your products, why not get in touch with me. J

A busy day, 2 school fete's

So, today was always going to be a pretty busy day, both Steven’s & Natalie’s schools decided to hold their school summer fetes on the same day, except that neither of them were actually school fetes!

Fortunately the weather has been pretty reasonable otherwise it would have been a bit of a washout all round.

First off we had Steven’s school fun day, from 11am, this was a good and well attended event, they had Boogie Pete from Boogie Bebbies on the CBebbies channel so he managed to get the crowd worked up and dancing with him, Nat enjoyed joining in but Steven was most disgusted at the thought of being in school on a Saturday, as the photo shows! He didn’t want to join in much and spent most of the time trying to escape or sitting on a chair with his back to the activity.

Natalie joined in with the dancing and we chatted with a few other parents.

We had to leave the fun day early to grab some lunch and then get Nat changed for the village fete and school open day, the school is only a very small one (14-ish in a year group) and they always try and get as many kids involved in the fete as possible, by doing some dances, sadly I couldn’t manage to get any video or photo’s of Nat doing her dance as she was about as far from where we were stood as is possible but she did do really well, the whole school always does do a fantastic job at events like this, for a small school, even for a larger school, they have a really dedicated and committed staff who do get the very best out of the kids and they so obviously and clearly breed some really talented kids too.

It is with a slight tinge of sadness that we watched Nat dancing because this is the last time we will see her take part on any such activities at this school, from September she moves on to a school for children with moderate learning difficulties, this is a bitter sweet thing, we are pleased that she has got a place there, especially as we had expected to have to fight to get her in, but we are sad that she will no longer be at the school she currently goes to because it is a fantastic school and we shall miss the staff, parents & kids, it really is a wrench but we do need to consider what is best for Nat and our (and the schools) overwhelming feeling is that now is the right time for her to move into special school.

Nat also enjoyed having her face painted and having a go on the bouncy castle.

We then headed to the local Garden Centre for a drink before heading off home, although by the time we were getting in the car to go home Nat had got over tired and was really stroppy and difficult so we decided to take a bit of a drive round and see if she went to sleep, which she did, we went past the road where Steven’s old school was, this closed down a couple of years ago now, so we decided to take a drive up there to see what was happening to the buildings, which apparently is not a lot! Obviously someone is looking after the playing fields and grounds but there are no signs up to indicate any purpose the buildings are being used for.

Anyhow, that’s about the size of our day, for me very draining! I had a rather emotional and difficult time yesterday and then to have such a draining day today has been rather tough, not least because of being around so many people and having to cope with socialising with people, something I often find difficult and draining these days. busy days are never going to be great whilst I still suffer depression BUT considering all this hasnt been as bad a day as it could have been, especially follwoing on from yesterday.

Blessed and Highly FLAVOURED

The title was NOT a typo! Its my attempt at humour!

This post is of a Christian theology nature those of you who are not Christians might not get your head round it so might prefer not to read.

Ok so a few weeks back I was at a conference, Church Leadership conference and to be honest I should NOT have been there, I was not really well enough to be at work never mind at the conference, but that’s in the past I went and I freaked and hit a real low as a result of going.

Anyhow, whilst there one of the speakers who I would say is a preaching Pavarotti, said some stuff that I find hard to get my head around, I actually wasn’t at the second of his session, which is just as well with how fragile I am/was, but at that session he trotted out one of the things I have heard some Christian speakers say a few times before, effectively what he was saying is that as Christians our security is in God and that our state and position is that we are, as children of the living God, Blessed and highly favoured, and yes there is truth in that, it is our position as Christ carriers but he went on to say that our response to being asked how we are should be to declare that ‘truth’ my problem with that is that although its true its not real!

If anyone asks at the moment how our car is I could say ‘it runs really well, the air-conditioning is working great, especially in this heat, it has fantastic suspension, its got fairly low mileage for the type and age of vehicle, its pretty new and it’s a great vehicle that suits our purposes well but if I wanted to be real about it I would say well there is an awful noise coming from the steering rack because one of the bearings is worn and needs replacing! Its actually not a pleasure to drive at the moment because its so noisy. All of the above are true but the answer to the question how is it is simply the last one is the. OH I could always just say, well it’s a FIAT what do you expect? J

Yes I am blessed yes I am highly favoured but the truth is that when someone asks how I am, genuinely asking rather than just as a greeting, they are not interested in my spiritual state and my eternal destination they are interested in me, in how David is doing and feeling right here right now, and the truth is that, as a guy who is suffering from severe depression, I am not feeling blessed and highly favoured I am often feeling pretty low and finding life tough!

Similarly, if all people want to hear is ‘I am wonderfully well and Blessed and Highly favoured’ then they actually don’t need to ask as they know that’s the theological state, indeed I would rather they don’t ask because they are clearly NOT interested in the real me the me that has to deal with real life and face issues and struggles in the here and now that, to be honest, sometimes bring me to breaking point.

I don’t want to have a ‘relationship’ built simply on making declarations of our spiritual state in the heavenlys without actually getting to know the daily struggles and issues that we each face, I am not interested in such a superficial relationship that we are afraid to admit who we are and how we are feeling! How can I pray for you effectively, how can I support you effectively if the only response you have to my genuine interest in how your feeling is to trot out some well worn cliché?

Lets get real with each other, lets admit that actually as Christians we are not immune from the problems and difficulties the rest of the world face, we can still be made redundant, we can still have financial problems, suffer from sickness, have car accidents, get cancer, suffer bereavement, have financial problems, have marriage problems, and dare I say, yes Christians can and do suffer depression.

So if you ask me how I am don’t be surprised at getting an honest and real answer because that’s who I am! Although I have to confess that very often I will gloss over the question and not answer it too fully or honestly simply because I am not prepared to discuss it with people who are only interested in the superficial, usually for me, at the moment, the answer to that question requires more than a passing single sentence response, it requires a desire on your part to understand depression and understand me, it requires the ability on your part to empathise with where I am and want to support.

So, how am I? well actually, its been a really good week this week, I am generally feeling so much better than I have been for ages BUT I am not able to say at the moment that I am better, Depression is not one of those conditions that you can say your better or have been healed from after just a week or so of feeling good, there are ups and downs, this might just be another good period before the next down or it might be real and significant improvement in my condition, helped significantly by the medication that I am on.

Now I have lit the touch paper, ME taking anti depressants! Yes and I have been taking them for a couple of years now! yet another big taboo in the Christian world, but why? After all I also take medication for Asthma, no one ever considers that to be wrong, I have asthma I take medication to help make it better, I have depression I take medication to help make that better too.

A busy weekend

Saturday morning, in our house, started way too early, did you know its daylight at 5.30 this time of year? Well I have know that for some time but could have done without having confirmation of it this weekend!

So yes it could have been worse, if Steven had a seizures (or seizures) as bad as he did Saturday morning, if he had one that bad whilst we were away that would have been so much more difficult and stressful altogether.

Yes Steven had several Fits Saturday morning, the first, rather short one at 5.30, followed a few minutes later by another one, this went on for a total of 25 minutes, including having been administered Bucal midazolam after 5 minutes, so we had to call the ambulance 10 minutes into the seizure, he had just about stopped by them time they arrived.

So Joy went with him to A&E whilst I stayed back and got myself and Nat organised, it was the In-laws to the rescue again, I rang them and arranged to drop Nat round there, which I did about 8.30, about the same time as Steven had another fit in A&E, this one also went over the 5 minute mark so they ended up administering some medication to stop the fit.

Anyhow, after dropping Nat off I joined Joy & Steven at the hospital.

Because of the second fit and the second dose of medication he had to stay in for ‘observation’ so was sent, after a long delay, up to the children’s ward, they couldn’t take him straight away as they were allegedly short staffed!

Granted once we got onto the ward there were very few nurses on duty BUT it also has to be said there were also next to no patients there either! So we are a little puzzled why they had such a problems, especially as we are the ones who do most of the observing.

Anyhow, Steven did pick up during the morning and we got out just before 3pm, not before I enjoyed the delights of the restaurant a couple of times.

So we headed off home, I dropped Joy & Steven off then went and picked Nat up, she had a great time having been out with Grandma and Arnie and then at the kite festival with Grandma & Grandpa.

Anyhow, it was time to fulfil my commitment to her, the Friday evening I had promised to take her shopping for a new lampshade, the old one had gone with the light fitting over the re-wiring works, she had remembered this promise when I got her up in the morning and was a little upset about not being able to do that, although she was more upset and concerned about Steven it has to be said! So anyhow, I took her to Homebase and we bought a new lampshade and matching bedside lamp, Disney Princess set, along with the Disney princess picture that Hanny pants and CJ had bought her for her birthday we now have a theme going on in her room, just need to get some new curtains and bedding to match and paint the walls, they need a coat of paint anyhow, pink to fit in, pink is her favourite colour anyhow! In-fact I did look at sample colours for decorating the living rooms and Nat insisted that we pick up a sample of some pink paint! I guess she has her room in mind.

So having done this we were pretty shattered.

Sunday morning started normally enough, we got up and went to church, Nat spent quite a bit of the time with Richard & Ursula, her adopted grandparents!!! After the service we hung about a fair bit then went to head off home, only to find the car wouldn’t start!!! So we unloaded again back into the church, we had some church keys with us so at least we could stay there and lock up afterwards, it was way too hot for staying in the car for too long.

I call the RAC and was really impressed with the service, the guy was with us inside of half an hour from calling them, it took about half an hour to get the car going and then we were on our way, it was a problem with earthing on the engine apparently! Whatever that means.

So that was the weekend pretty well interrupted, Sunday afternoon was good though went out and had a good time with the kids. I have to say the kids have been really good this weekend.

OK so today was good, the kids packed off to school, we then meet a friend for lunch, this is a friend who we have got to know through Facebook, this is now the third person who we have meet in real life following initial contact only via Facebook! Any children reading this don't try it yourself, we only do so after very careful assessment of the risks and knowing the person on line for a fair bit before meeting them also we always meet in a public and neutral venue for first meeting, well almost true when I meet my good friend Graham he came to the office to pick me up! But hey I wouldn’t do that with everyone.

So we meet this lady today, I wont name her here I shall refer to her as Tilly, she is someone who I have got to know through a support group on Facebook, and is a fantastic young woman, she has overcome so much to be the person she is today and I admire her so much, she lives not too far from where we live so we arranged, myself and Joy, to meet up with her today, I think we shall be seeing more of each other in the future.

Tilly, you know who you really are, you’re a great friend and we both consider it a privilege to have you as our friend, hope everything works out for you and hope to see you again soon.

Anyhow, that’s enough from me for now, will write more some time soon.

breakfast at the swannery Restaurant Bedford Hospital.

Locks Away

At the weekend we managed to loose the key for the side door into the garage, no big problems you might think, keys get lost all the time! True but this is the only key we have AND the garage is difficult to access via the up and over door, we cant get our vehicle into the garage anyhow and use said garage as storage space, added to that we need access several times a day, the fridge freezer and tumble dryer are in there and we store a lot of dry food, boxes etc, in there too.
So Saturday evening when we discovered the key was missing we went into a mild panic and searched high and low! I wont apportion blame but we know who was the last person to have it and it wasn’t me  anyhow, in the grand scheme of things its not the end of the world, a major irritation for the weekend as there was no way I was going to call a locksmith out at the kind of likely call out charges for a weekend, it would have to wait until Monday.
This morning I called our good friend Derek, who co-project managed our church building project with me, on the basis that if he cant fix it he will certainly know a person (being politically correct even though it was almost certainly going to be a man!) who could!
To my surprise he said he would be round in half an hour and have a look.
Anyhow, we gained access to the garage via the up and over door, no mean feat without getting knocked out but we managed it, and Derek set too cutting out the old mortice, we already had a combination lock that I had planned to fit to that door, the door is in pretty constant use and we wanted to have a way of stopping Princess Nat and Stevey from gaining access without the messing about of having to remove the key each time as well as overcoming the ongoing problem of forgetting to lock the door when we go out or remembering after we have locked the main house up so having to unlock the house again to hang the key up.
So within the space of a he hours we had the old lock cut out and the new combination lock fitted, anyone who knows me will know that I have a real thing about keys and am really keen on combination locks because it over comes the whole problem of loosing keys etc, I also hate carrying too many keys around with me so it is really nice now to see the door fitted with a brand new combination keypad lock.
It was a job that I could have done and, under normal circumstances would have done well before now but at least it’s now done and we can safely say that we won’t loose the keys for the garage again!
Although we will have to see how much the whole thing will cost us, I am also hopeful that Derek might well be able to sort the main up and over garage door as well, he certainly was going to look at this but I was out when he had finished so didn’t get the chance to speak to him about it.
The thing about this is that it is so good to have a friend who is able to turn his hand to just about anything, someone that you can call on to help in times of crisis and who will either be able to sort the problem or point you the right direction for someone who can! Thanks Derek for all your help, you are a little star and I still want to adopt you as my dad.
D