The day started with taking the dog to daycare at 6:30, followed by a phone call from the cleaners at 8 to say they were coming by 1:30. So started the day fairly promptly and took an early lunch at 12 to go running. So back just in time for the cleaners. They did their thing and I picked the dog back up at 4. So fitted work in between all these stops, mainly involving math and sprite tweaking.

It looks like this years holiday will be in Tokyo, so with my Japanese being as rusty as the Titanic I got hold of one of various online course and gave that a blast. It’s all coming back to me fairly slowly, remembering I spent about three months working there about twenty years ago. I used to be fairly fluent, providing it was a conversion about beer, food or shagging. I could also read a fair amount as at the time Yokohama was fairly notorious about writing all bus and station names in Kanji. Jamie is trying to learn as well, so far he can say he’s American and can’t speak Japanese, so may need some work.

Watched some telly and had a fairly early night. Almost getting the end of the US ‘Celebrity Apprentice’. What will I do without my weekly fix of ‘Donald Trump’. The wine is almost up to temperature, so should start bubbling away soon.

Oh I got an email back from boiler men, apparently they have now applied for the building certificate.

Last night I got through the last slice of Christmas cake. Also now finally got through all the chocolates, biscuits, lager and crisps. So it’s just the biscuits for cheese to go, and I’ve got a hell of a lot of them. Will have to buy more cheese though. Beer fridge is now defrosting.

Spent the morning working on the main project, a few online type things. Walked the dog. Ate a salad sandwich. Actually just before I walked the dog I ran the boiler people, no answer just a machine. Then I actually got a call back, apparently he’s been on holiday. Although I expect that now I’ve demanded a full VAT invoice he’s decided to give up trying not to issue one. I won’t go away, I’m very annoying. Anyway, we will see if it turns up.

Tried to watch some sci-fi film last night. Gave up after half an hour, just couldn’t work it out. Will try again tonight.

Spent the afternoon working on mobile concept, added some sound effects and music.

Went to the gym and did pump. Only just finished work, so bath, phone mother, eat pizza and give that film another shot.

Today continued working on what I was doing yesterday. I thought I had it all done then worked out it was all going wrong as it used a load of spline code that I hand’t converted at all.

Went running, it’s now all beginning to defrost, hopefully that’s the last of the snow.

So in the afternoon, in between spline code, or should it be spline code in between everything else….I knocked all the valves off the radiators, opened up all the lock shields, turned the water heating off and then measured everything using the laser gun. I have a feeling the dual probe may not be as accurate as I thought, plus the laser is giving me very consistent results. So I measured everything cold, then let it heat up for half hour then measured it again. This time I was more interested in the flow temperature at each rad. So I made up a table with each rad and wrote down the flow (and return for reference). Initially I had 77 in the bath room down to 72 in the lounge, so only 5 degrees drop. The flow return was more interesting, only 4 degrees across the smallest rads but the dining room and the lounge were showing 21 degrees. So working on the new theory for each degree of difference I tightened up the lock shield by 1/4 turn. I then left it for twenty minutes then measured it all again. So on the second attempt there was still 4 degrees difference, but at least it had dropped by 1. Also the flow / return max drop had gone to 20 degrees. So now round two. Got down to 2 degrees difference and 17 degrees max flow return drop. Round three was 3 degrees and 15 degrees drop. Round 4 was back to 2 degrees and 14 degree drop. I think that’s as best as I’m going to get it, I did one more tweak on the last measure, so will do a final one now. And then when you just start to measure it all the dinning room hit the thermostat temperature and shut the boiler off, so will have to leave it for a couple more minutes. Right, so the final tally is, from worst to last, bathroom an cloak room at 7 degrees difference, not really surprising considering they are by far the smallest rads, you try and get 12 degree drop across something the size of a dinner plate. Second place is the office and hall, next biggest rads at 9 degrees. Jamie’s room and the spare room are at 10 degrees, the kitchen is at 11. The bedroom, on-suite and living room are spot on at 12 degrees and the dining room has 15 degrees. The only way I’d get that slightly better is to increase the pump speed and I don’t really want to go there again. So, there we are, all finally done (hopefully).

Now time for a shower as I’m covered in sweat as it’s about 34 degrees in here at the moment. Then I’ll screw the covers back on the lock shields. It’ll be interesting to see how much noise it generates now as there is an unrestricted flow on both the dining room (which has no TRV) and the lounge, so the pump shouldn’t be able to suck in any air through the vent. We will see.

So woke up at 5AM (well the alarm was set for that), looked out the window, light snow, nothing major. So reset the alarm for 6:30AM. Got up at 20 past. Took the dog to day care, roads were fine. Went back to bed.

So today was working on a mobile project, was a bit stop start as I had a few problems getting my head round what needed to be done. Plus the office wanted me to sort their phone system out, which is a little tricky when you’re a hundred miles away. Anyway, phone system sorted, one mobile problem sorted, so went out for a run.

Came back to find the cleaners waiting outside, which was odd as it was an hour before they were expected. Anyway, they got on with it, I leant them my Dyson, as it was a damn site better at dog hair than their Henry.

Picked up dog. Came back and finally got into some decent work. Worked on into the evening.

Balancing radiators is proving somewhat impossible. I think it’s because who ever installed the heating hasn’t actually fitted the radiators in a loop, I think there are actually three separate loops. So what I think I’ll do is open up all the valves again and then measure all the flow temperatures, those rads that are at a higher temperature I’ll close down the lock shields a bit, then hopefully that will even out the heat distribution across the rads. It’ll kill a few hours anyway.

So finished off what I was doing, checked it all in. Now back to mobile. An interesting task ahead, not that I managed to get a great deal of it done today, hopefully get a bit more stuck into it tomorrow. At the moment just getting rather pissed off with the weather. Did manage to go out for a run lunchtime without slipping over.

Jamie took the dog out this evening, she did a bit of a runner and pulled him over, so walk over in five minutes, plus she’s going to be a bit screwed tomorrow as well as it’s still snowing now, so I don’t really fancy taking her to day car at 6:30 in the morning at minus 4.

In other news, I played with the heating. Again the lock shields are almost closed, but I’ve turned down the pump and the boiler appears to be modulating correctly. I’ve done four radiators and bled everything again. I had it cranked up full earlier, it was like a sauna in here but I did get superb flow and return temperatures at the boiler, so I know I’m actually getting somewhere this time.

Just watched ‘Up’, really enjoyed it actually, that old man reminds me of me.

Oh talking of being bitter and twisted, I’ve decided what I’m doing for my 50th. Putting a few people in prison. Something to look forward to anyway.

Still finishing off some browser type work. Thankfully that’s now near enough come to an end. One tiny little bit to do on that tomorrow then hopefully on to something else.

Walked the dog. Wet route, as it was still as slippery as hell. Tesco shopping arrived, woot. Still monitoring boiler temperatures, got the slow set to about 60 degrees now, I’m reading the return from the bottom of the tank and the flow from the top of the pump, I appear to be getting a 20 degree drop there which is good. The boiler seems to be modulating correctly, but I do need to set the TRV’s using a probe and have a vague go at balancing it again. Although with the TRV’s shutting down correctly this isn’t so important.

Looked at a few holiday destinations. Thinking of some sort of fly-drive towards Ohio. I’m leaving it up to Jamie to book, I’ve given him dates and a budget. Which means we’ll end up in a caravan in Wales. If he had any intelligence he would book Tokyo where he wants to go. We’ll be going to Wales then.

Went to the gym and did Combat. I actually broke into a sweat tonight so must have put some effort in. Weather could be a factor tomorrow regards my run, if it’s still icy. Will have to see.

Last night was a bit strange, actually no, last night wasn’t, I made a curry and then we went to bed. Friday night. Now Friday’s are never normally known for their sexual exploits but for some reason I was wearing a particular pair of yellow briefs. It had got to the point where Jamie had failed to put the washing away, so my usual collection of comfy but sagging pants was still on the airer. So I was wearing these quite, how should I put it ‘taut’ pair of yellow patterned pants. I then got accused of wearing his, until I pointed out they were size small. Anyway, he then jumped me like the AA would fire up an old banger. Then I went to sleep.

Sunday morning, well, wasn’t really in the mood to do anything really. So stayed in bed and watched the American Celebrity Apprentice. Got up and had a very late lunch. Didn’t do the dog shit run as the garden is still covered in snow. Checked the heating magnaclense thing and it was pretty much clean, so that could be done. Ended up removing the labels off sixteen wine bottles, sterilising and then filling them. There’s still about four bottles worth in the barrel. It’s still a a bit of an acquired taste at the moment,but it’s got one hell of kick to it. I’m sure like me, it will mature with age.

I then drained down the heating and flushed it all. Got rid of all the sludge cleaner. Then refilled it and added the inhibitor. The boiler is now on max, but I’ve dropped the pump down to medium. I’m probably going to leave the lock shields for the moment and just measure the flow and return at the boiler. I’m hoping for a nice 12 degree drop, but considering the header tank was filled with very fresh outside temperature water, the return is currently -4. It needs to get that to about 87, it may take it’s time. One thing I will do though now is reset all the TRV’s back to the correct temperatures. That should then hopefully make the house temperature more balanced. Then piss around with the locks shields next week if it’s not balancing itself.

Ordered more pants.

Going to have a bath, read a magazine then have a Chinese. Back to mobile work next week hopefully after I finish off a few bits. Not a particularly productive weekend, but I blame the weather.