Thursday, February 21, 2013

What BIG teeth ...

The cats were taken to the Vet the day before yesterday for their annual vaccination and to have their microchips tested as some in the batch do not scan.  Ours were fine.

They both had a quick physical once-over and they both bit Dr Sophie.  I DID warn her that they might.  They both took great umbrage at having their temperatures taken and were not all that happy about having their tummies palpated.  Parsifal has gingivitis and has to eat more dry food (he is fat enough already and eats dry food all day) and Poppy seems to have some front teeth missing.  Dr Sophie wasn't sure if it was congenital or if they had accidentally been lost.  I asked for details to send to their breeder but she has obviously forgotten.

A place has been found for GB1 at the private school of choice which providentially is very close to my apartment so I am to be the emergency call-up if he needs to be collected in a hurry.  It is a pity that he has to start after the others in his class but it is good that he is going to be attending that particular school; they have a sailing programme and I have been lead to understand that he is pretty good at sailing. (parents' opinion, naturally).

Friday, February 15, 2013

More Willing

I realised after I had transcribed the whole of my Great Grandfather's will, including the page I missed the first time around and divided it up into paragraphs, that the codicil was missing  -  that all important codicil which just may mention the twins.

I spent all of yesterday transcribing the will and saving it as an html document but without the codicil it is worthless as the wills of the other siblings mention parts of the "Hundreds of Onkaparinga" which they were not allotted in the original division.

There was a note at the bottom of the last page saying that the codicil was separate from the rest of the will and gave the page number where, hopefully, it will be found.

I have sent in a request, an explanation and directions where to find it and hopefully I will eventually get it and we can sort out just how many and who got what as far as the land goes.  Great Aunt A. seems to have ended up with quite a lot of it and in the actual will she didn't get a share in the agricultural land at all, only the house and its surrounding land.

In the meantime I will finally get back to the much-married Davies branch of the family which should keep me busy for some time to come

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Let there be light Mk 3

I have bitten the bullet and had all my halogen lights converted to LEDs.  It took two electricians about four hours to do the lot and put in a dimmer switch (which I didn't want but it came with the package) and the spread of light is wonderful after the halogen pinpoints of light interspersed with shadow so that wherever I was I seemed to be in the shadows.  Now there is light everywhere.  It was well worth the money and with the new smoke alarms and the cat flaps I am gradually customising the place.

There are disadvantages  (like having to sit on the floor to work the microwave oven) but with the summer of 40 degree temperatures the air conditioning is wonderful.  The next thing is to get some blinds over the big windows because even the double glazing doesn't keep out all the heat and cold.

I received the Wills of a grandfather, a great grandfather and a great uncle and great aunt and am now more confused that I was before; the ownership of the blocks of land known as 'The Hundred of Onkaparinga' seemed to turn up in various wills and I have no idea when or how they changed hands but I have a feeling that the executors of my great grandfather's estate did a bit of a fiddle somewhere.  Some of the language was a bit ambiguous  -  unusual for Legalese  -  and as he had left no provision for the 12-month old twins I suspect that a little bit of tweaking was done.  However, my Great Aunt Ada seems to have ended up with the bulk of the real estate.

There was also something a bit dodgy about the addition of a codicil to my great grandfather's will which caused the solicitor, who was one of the executors, to give a very detailed account of the event.  That was included with the will and I got the feeling that he was not very happy about it all ... or why bother to record it.  It has generated some deep thinking on my part but it all happened a long time ago and really doesn't matter that much any more; it was a bit of a shock nevertheless.  I don't think that my great grandfather was a very nice man.  He came across as vindictive, as did one of my great uncles  -  but that instance amused me because I understood the circumstances, it being much more within my living memory.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Thumbs up for connectivity

Techie came this morning and connected all my computers by putting a folder on my desktops whereby if I drag and drop a file from any of the computers it will appear in the transfer folder of all the others.  That means that I can now transfer data to and from my Surface without having to email it to myself.

We had our first COTA day for the year yesterday and were eased in gently with only one client each.  One problem I am finding more and more is that there are so may operating systems around and most of the clients have no idea which one they have been set up with.

My client yesterday has a dongle (an iinet one, I think) and assumes that the $49 which she paid for it was a once only payment.  We just did the basic manipulating of actual windows and using google to search.  I have a nasty feeling that she might have been set up with Google Chrome; she has a google account for her email, I gather.  Next week we will see how much she has retained.

They all ask for notes but really we get such a diversity of levels and requests that it would be totally impractical and they are better off going to the library and borrowing a book on the subject.

Here is a picture of Parsifal helping me with the washing up.  Click on the picture to enlarge it.


Monday, February 4, 2013

Not fire; not even smoke ...

Last night my smoke alarms started chirping on a regular basis every nine minutes and by this morning it was down to the regulation 28 seconds, meaning that the batteries needed changing immediately or I would be driven crazy.

As soon as the shops opened I was down in Coles buying the batteries specified by the booklet which came with the smoke alarm which was replaced under warranty last year.  I removed the cover but there was no battery compartment and the information, in CAPITAL  LETTERS, saying that there were no moveable parts and I was on no account to tamper with the workings.  So I phoned an electrician.

Luckily one was free to come straight away and he scratched his head and said that they were all still under warranty and would have to be replaced.  I told him that I wanted the sort where I could change the battery, not the alarm, when the battery went flat so he has replaced all three of them with smoke alarms with batteries which can be replaced by me if needs be.  It will be the second replacement for the one in the main room in 18 months so hopefully I can deal with them myself in the future.

As he carried the old smoke alarms out of the apartment the one which has given the most trouble was still chirping hopefully in his bucket of detritus.

I am posting a picture of Poppy, not because she had anything to do witht the smoke alarms but because I haven't posted a picture of her for a while.  She doesn't end up in strange places so it is just a nice pic of her now that she is grown up.  Click on the picture to enlarge it.