Dealing is in my blood!

[sheddie]

I have bought and sold from the playground and feel it's just a part of me. What would you say is in your blood?

[eleanor2]

i only ever wanted to be a nurse.which i was for many years.i think caring for people is in my blood. other than being a christian i can't fully apply myself to anything else.other than marraige and motherhood of course.

[sheddie]

I also think writing letters and giving is in my blood too and the love of nature.

[dinger]

sorry I am a bit late joining you all .I think the computer is in my blood lately .I am trying so hard to learn more as well as keeping up with writing and reading in between .

[jazzactivist]

Reading is in mine. Also, caring about society and the world that we live in as I have done community work since I was a teenager.

[Oola]

Nothing comes more naturally to me than caring for animals. My Mum used to call me the Patron Saint of All Small Animals because of the amount of rescues I used to do! Sometimes it makes life really hard because I am very emotional about animals and find it hard to be completely objective about things.

I also can't do without using my creative skills - if I don't I feel stagnant and start to ever so slightly loopy. I literally start to feel anxious and worry and think about things far too much if my brain isn't ticking over properly.

[Oola]

And by the way, welcome dinger :) glad to see you here!

[Redstart]

For me it's reading - if I haven't got at least one book on the go I'm lost - cooking and growing things - first children, now plants.

[Crocus]

:)Hi, definitely reading, (everything I can get hold of concerning the UK!) and of course, the UK! I also love interior decorating. Of lately chatting kind of got in my blood as well! Don't know if it's such a good thing when you have a home to run, a hubby and 2 teenage boys! But I try hard to balance all of it!

[Pippa]

I have to sew every day, I've just started to make a few Christmas decorations (apologies for the C word).

[franbee]

I think making things, and thrift. I've always been a recycler, patchwork etc, and never waste things, food, soap, money! When I see the waste at work it makes me want to weep. Fran.

[sheddie]

Oola I too have to be using my brain all the time and my creative streak or I get the worries about all sorts of things. But it can be tiring can't it?

[Oola]

Tiring yes, but in a good way :) Being mentally tired from worrying is much worse!!!!

I've also decided today that cooking is in my blood. I love it! I don't know how people can live off oven food and microwave meals!

[CountryLady]

Reading and animals for me. Can't cope without either!

[eleanor2]

glad to see you. welcome.

[Crocus]

Hi eleanor! Thanks ever so much!

[sunflower]

I need to have a project on the go and a book to read late at night. At the moment, I am knitting myself a cardigan with wool I bought in the Isle of Skye last year. I have made up the intricate pattern and changing the jumper pattern into a cardigan pattern! So this should satisfy me for quite a while. We brought up our children to have a plan for today, for tomorrow, next week, in six months time and for your life. We have found that having a plan to get stuck into something creates a sense of wellbeing.

[dinger]

Thats a brilliant plan you have there Sunflower .

[sheddie]

Sunflower what a great idea and I bet your children have learned well from you. X

[emjay53]

As I scrolled down all your posts, I was wondering just what I woud say was in my blood. Apart from being naturally maternal and motherly, I think Sheddie that I would probably have a similar blood type running thru me as you do. My dads family always kept the village shop and the joke in the village was that we were all shopkeepers, and I have to say I just love selling! When I was a senior manager for a charity my brief was to bring in a profit of a million plus from the shops within the geographical region that I was responsible for. Often a hard undertaking within some of them, as not all the managers had that ''natural shop keeper'' blood coursing thru their veins. However I did it, and with a few grand to spare too. Miss that now. Have taken to doing a bit of selling on ebay to keep my hand in, and I love it. I dont care if the profit is really small as long as I have made one. So I would say thats what I ve got in my veins.

[littlemiss]

animals, mainly horses, i do 'join up' (monty roberts) and rehabilitate horses that have had either physical or mental breakdowns. and art, love to draw paint sew etc

[emjay53]

Littlemiss, the work you do with the horses sounds fascinating. Can you tell us more? Would love to know how you help them, particularly after a mental breakdown. I often read Liz Jones in the MoS, she has a rescued racehorse who seems to have mental problems too. It is so sad, horses in particular are such beautiful and noble animals.

[dinger]

Coming from the same family as Sheds dealing is also in my blood . I was out shopping yesterday when I passed a sign saying garage sale . I bought the sweetest little barley legged drop leaf table just could'nt resist .

[sandybay]

I'm also a reader. When I was a kid I used to read anything and everything, literally the back of cereal packets. My formal education finished early but reading has filled the gap left by lack of qualifications.

Great books take you on a journey. Music too but reading makes you work harder.

As to what's in my blood, there's also a negative.
That's my anger - maybe from my Italian background. Not a thing I like about myself. Keep it very much under wraps but it eats away at me sometimes !

[Crocus]

Sheds, I found this for you yesterday - was thinking perhaps you might be interested in an rather old steam boiler which once belonged to an old steam ship?xx:D:p

[eleanor2]

hi to sandybay big welcome.love cerdigion my brother lives there.we have had many happy visits.

[sheddie]

How great Crocus now would you please post these things from steamship to me express, they are just the kind of thing I love and all that history!! X

[Crocus]

I'll go and collect it today and send it over with express mail - no problems! Perhaps a bit heavy and rusted, but nonetheless! xx

[Katelb]

Steptoe and'Friend' comes to mind,the international version!!!!

[bonnie]

:)time i think to give some old topics an airing.
i reacently got a bargain on my new living room carpet. it is an axeminster, i got the store person down from £280.00 to £160. a good bit of bartering me thinks.:)
;)what's your latest bargain?:)

[eleanor2]

i just can't barter.......i wish i could.my best buys are from charity shops.when you get a good quality top name cheap.got a lovely espirit top last week for about £2 hubby says its lovely too.

[bonnie]

:)thats a bargain eleanor. we should try bartering at one of sheddies boot sales:D what do you think?:D

[dragonfly]

I hate bartering too. If an item doesn't have a price on it I won't ask I just won't buy it.
Reading and knitting were in my blood, for 40 years I couldn't live without them. Now I very rarely read and never knit but couldn't live without gardening or a computer. I put this down to the 'change'.

[Crocus]

I'm all for reading as well, since I can remember (well, since I could read, that is!) We were a serious reading family.

[magic cochin]

Gardening! I'm from a long line of gardeners - growers of fruit, veg and flowers to send to markets. I worked in my grandparents greenhouses before I went to school, I took cuttings and learnt to write by writing plant labels!
And if I have surplus plants or produce what do I do - put it on a stall by the gate - it's in the genes!

C :)

[sheddie]

I'm having another thick moment, I've forgotten what the topic is!! So no comment Xlol

[bonnie]

:eek:Deeeerrrr sheddie, wake up.:D:D

[Clunkshift]

Designing and dismantling things is in my blood as a toddler I would "help" my father and pass him tools like a surgeon's assistant.
You cannot imagine how exciting Crocus' old boiler photos were for me. I just have to scrutinise everything and see how (or why) it is made that way.
I gazed at that boiler for ages, pondering its pressure rating, direction of flow etc.
My dream job would have been to own a scrapyard.
Other people visiting hospital just see an adjustable height bed table - I see 5 different designs by 3 manufacturers and then try and decide which is the most efficient design and which is the cheapest to make.
If anything breaks down in the home, I have an overwhelming urge to take it apart and see what is inside. Perversely I love 'cutomised' things but hate unsightly bodges and imbalance; I can't stand pictures hanging askew (which probably explains some personal angst too).
My other great love is reading books, a passion inherited from my mother.

[Crocus]

Hi Clunk, that boiler was by the little harbour - my OH is very interested in this boiler as well, and would like to know what your comments are on this boiler? xx

[Clunkshift]

My comments on Crocus’ boiler photos.

This is a heat exchanger of some sort, possibly a waste heat re-boiler. It would be used to extract heat from waste gas and use it to pre-heat water for raising steam. On a ship you would run the exhaust gas through the big nozzle in the centre of the body (I assume there is another big nozzle opposite?) and the exhaust heat would transfer to water passing through a tube “bundle” inside which has tubes running form end to end. It was probably designed to heat different phases of water as there are 4 nozzles on each end, but they didn’t use its capacity as 2 out of 4 are blanked off.
I’m guessing at exhaust gas because the inlet & outlets are big which suggests large gas volume at a relatively low flow rate and it obviously has large temperature cycles because the main shell has expansion bellows at one end; and this is borne out by the simple domes end covers indicating that internal tubes are welded to fixed tubesheets rather than removable ones. That means that although the outside looks rusty and corroded, the insides are probably in stainless steel or a nickel alloy. It mounts horizontally on 2 saddles and the inlet pipe probably came up through the floor below, as it has a short pipe spool attached, and probably takes up to 300psi pressure at around 200 °C

Was that boring enough?
Now you know why I try and resist technical comments – because people only ever ask me once…

[Crocus]

Hi Clunk, not bored at all! In fact, OH says to say thanks very much for the info - he loves the detail and now understand a bit more about the engineering! Thanks again.
Crocus x