Check Those Fuses

I love my home and garden a lot, more than most in fact, as it has taken me a long time to get settled in a home and garden that I’m happy with. One thing that I didn’t take into consideration when moving into my home though, was the state of the fuse box.

I moved in to my new house, and everything was great - home, nice garden, nice garage, and the dog seemed happy with his surroundings - so it was an all round success.

Then about a week after I moved in, the problems with the lights started. Every couple of days I would switch on the living room lights (which are spotlight bulbs along one of those bendy tubes), and a bulb would blow, along with the rest of the lights in the house. The one bulb blowing out tripped the fuse box every time.

The fuse box is in the garage, and the garage can only be accessed from outside, which makes it even more tricky when I’m upstairs with the lights off and I need to find my way downstairs, out the door, find the key, unlock the garage, get into the garage, find the fusebox, and fix the fuse, in the pitch dark!

Anyway, after this happening 6 times, I got pretty sick of it, so I had an electrician come round to take a look at my dodgy lighting that was causing all these problems. He took one look at the lighting strip and told me that there was nothing wrong with it, which surprised me a good deal. He then took one look at my fuses and told me that was where my problem lay.

Turns out my fuses were old, and dodgy as a hooker with one leg.

The one thing I didnt take into consideration of course was what turned out the be the problem, the fuses were old and decrepid, which was causing my bulbs to blow when turning on and off the electricity to them!

Moral of the story?

Check those fuses!

Careful in The Garden

Recently a poor 48yr old woman in Torquey was pegging some washing on the line in her garden, only to become impaled upon a 15cm rusty nail.

Nice.

X-rays revealed that the nail had actually penetrated the woman’s foot by 7.5cm, and then bent once inside making it even more difficult for the doctors to remove it without performing minor surgery.

The woman was naturally rather shocked by the large object protruding fromjust below her big toe, but resisted the urge to pull it out thankfully as this would certainly have done more harm than good.

Torquay isn’t usually such a dangerous place, indeed it actually boasts a wealth of gorgeous Torquay hotels, but on this occasion the person in question was rather unfortunate to experience the rusty end of the nail.

Sussex Malfunctioning Fireworks Flogged

Recently I was reading an article in the Argus, which, for those who aren’t familiar - is a Brighton based local newspaper. The article was discussing how fireworks are sold outide of the strictly regulated legal sale periods, and the effects this was having on the public.

The strict regulations as to when fireworks CAN be sold state that these periods fall over October 15 to November 10th, December 26 to December 31st, Chinese new year, and Diwali. Many stores across sussex however, are either completely ignoring these legalities, or are simply completely unaware of them. Ironically the rules are in place because fireworks become unsafe if stored for long periods of times, and by ignoring, or remaining ignorant to this fact - business seeking to make a quick profit, and in fact setting themselves up for a very quick loss. When put away in boxes at the back of sheds or in garages, the fireworks deteriorate and degrade, which eventually leads to the malfunction of the explosive materials contained within.

There is a reason that only some business are granted all-year licenses and that’s because they have shown that they can store fireworks safely all year round. Anyone selling fireworks without such a license outside the specified time periods is most likely selling a dangerous product.

Selling fireworks throughout the year also has antisocial behaviour implications, which is another one of the reasons that it is regulated. While the celebrations around the relevant times of year are certainly a pleasure, subjected to the continuous noise and distress that fireworks cause may be too much for the elderly and pets to cope with on a regular basis.