Make A Footstool Quickly In A Restaurant Or Hotel

 My husband was organizing a lunch event. A guest phoned with a problem. She was having difficulty walking.  She could manage the journey. But she needed our help at the venue.

Footstool Needed

My friend Gillian needed a footstool at lunchtime. 

We phoned the person hiring out the restaurant which was in a room our dine and wine booked for lunch at a London club. She asked, Can you supply a footstool? She told us they had answered in the affirmative.

On the day my husband and I arrived half an hour early to check everything was ready in the room and I asked for the footstool. They did not have a footstool.

What could we do? I looked around the room. No low table or chair was suitable. Apart fromt the size and inconvience of the bulk, and the risk of damaging a table or dirtying a chair, nothing wwas novable and low enough.

I walked down the corridor, to where our waiters and the superviser were in the kitchen.  I wondered if they had an object, a large saucepan, or box of food or drink? How about an empty box?

Cardboard Box Footstool

I asked if they had an empty box we could use as a makeshift footstool. I envisaged something big enough, and tough enough not to collapse with the weight of feet or legs on it?   

A brown cardboard box would look ugly. How about putting something on top? A large table napkin? A small tablecloth? A washable table runner? (A table runner is the long strip of cloth you put down the centre of a large oblong table to look decorative.)

A few minutes later they appeared with an ideal size box and a small table cloth. I put the box down with the cloth on it. I tried it out by sitting on a chair and putting my feed on it. The cloth slipped sideways alarmingly, possibly jolting a delicate ankle, then fell off. It revealed the empty, ugly box.

I dashed back to the kitchen and explained the problem and asked if they had a weight, or strap, or sticky tape to fix the problem.

They produced a roll of thick sticky tape. They used it to seal the fabric over the box, underneath. Like a wrapped birthday present. Neat creases and folds. No bulk visible. Elegant.

Sticky Tape

I wondered whether they could easily remove the stikiness from the fabric, and mentioned this to my husband. 

He was busy counting out menus and wine glasses and answering phone calls from people who were delayed in traffic and reassuring them.

He dismissed my worry. "That's their problem."

If I were to make a footstool at home, and had time, I would use one or several fabric table napkins, of which I have inherited or kept several. I would sew them in position with a large running stitch, so the table napkins could be retrieved and returned to the set of matching table cloth and napkins.

You could cover your box with any fabric. Cut up jeans, an old pair, for something sturdy. Pretty velvet, with foam undeneath.  two or four boxes could be taped or glued to the big box to make legs. 

I though of adding wheels, from an old suitcase, or bought from the internet. But you don't want to footstool to run away. That's why a walking frame has two wheels at the front and none at the back. You would need a brake or a lever, or a wall behind the desk or table, maybe with another box behind the footstool.

So, many options for a temporary footstool in a restaurant or hotel. Or a permanent DIY footstool at home. 

Of course, if you copy this idea elsewhere, for example, in your own home, and want to dismantle a tamprary footstool for a visitor or invalid with a temporary disability, that will be your problem.

Wonderful. Professional looking. You would not know it was not a custom made piece of furniture.  

Plastic Washing Up Bowl

At home I had an old-fashioned footstool. I moved it for a family dinner party and could not find it.

I have just made myself a temporary footstool under the kitchen table which i use as a desk. I inherited a proper footstool from my late mother.

However, when we had family over for dinner, we moved clutter out of the way. Where is my footstool now? I have no idea. 

I had a plastic washing up bowl which was in the way. I put it under the desk, out of the way. 

It moved. I found myself with my feet in the bowl. When I moved my feet, the edge of the bowl trapped them. Nuisance. Distraction.

I turned the bowl upside down. I put out my feet, accidentally on top of the bowl. I found I had made myself a makeshift footstool. However, when I took my feet out of my slippers, I found the base of the bowl had an ucomfortable edge.

What could I put on top? A cushion?

On my office chair I had two items. A rainbow coloured bathmat, and athen chair cushion, seat cover, the sort you tie onto hard wooden dining chairs or metal garden chairs.  I wanted to keep the cushion on my desk chair. Besides it kept slipping off. But the larger bathmat could fold under the bowl.

This was not intended to be a permanent solution. Just a temporary fix until I found the proper footstool.

But I now know I have two ways to make a foostool in a restaurant or hotel bedroom. For myself. For anybody else. 

Recycling Cardboard Boxes, Washing Up Bowls, Bath Mat Sets

Now I have the idea of covering a cardboard box, or an unwanted or ugly or old and stained or damaged washing up bowl, I have several more ideas for recycling. I can also re-use a bathmat or the matching or non matching unwanted toilet seat mat. An opportunity to fulfil a need. Or recycle to make an item to give away as a gift or to sell, for oneself, as pin money, as a business, for charity. Or to give away free, simply to recycle.

Sit up straight at a desk with a footstool Or Raised Table or Chair Legs

Posture Problem When Sitting Typing

I found that my back was straighter and I felt more comfortable and did not slide forward with unsuported knees on a short seat desk chair when I used a footstool.

In theory I could raise and lower my desk chair. When I bought a desk chair, I made sure it could raise and lower so that I could sit in the recommended way, with my feet on the ground.

Unfortunately, the desk cannot be raised and lowered. When my feet were flat on the floor, the desk was too high.

If you had one of those tables which swing up and down, and raise and lower, and wheel about, to go over a bed, or couch, you could put this by your chair, or even above a low table. But if your kitchen table or dining table or desk is too high, what can you do?

 In theory, you can adjust your table legs. Cut them down. 

To Raise Table Legs

To raise the table, you could put a platform underneath, such as an old door. 

Add wheels to the table, not to move it but to add height.

Buy Furniture Raisers

I googled raise desk legs and immediately found lots of sets of four furniture raisers. Designed for chairs, sofas, desks, or even chests of drawers. 

Furniture raisers come in assorted colours. White. Black. Pale brown to co-ordinae with pine or teak. Dark brown to go with dark oak or other woods or dark furniture. Some are round. Some are like dice. Some are hollow. 

Extending Talbe and Chair Legs Sets of four

Some look like each leg etender consists of two different sizes which slot together, like lego, with a hollow top for a round or square talbe or chair leg. These offer a choice of three heights, with the lowest, the taller one, or both together.

My footstool was moved out when we had a dinner party, because it was in the way and I work at the kitchen table.

Recycle DIY Washing Up Bowl Converted To Footstool

By good luck I had a plastic washing up bowl under the desk. I kept catching my feet inside it. So I upturned it. 

More details on covering it in the next post.

Read the Side Effects Of Pills

 I came home from hospital with codeine and paracetamol. Both are pain killers.

Don't confuse codeine with caffeine. Caffeine in your coffee is a stiumland. codeine is a pian killer. It has the opposite effect. Caffeine wakes you up. odeine send you to sleep, hence less sensivive to everything outside and inside, including pain.

I slept all afternoon. I thought that meant I was getting old, and dying.

Then I read the insctructions with the pills. I knew how many to take and how often. That was on the outside of the packet, on a sticker.

The Instruction leaflet icluded the side efects. 

One side effect was feeling sleepy. That explains it.

No driving.  No drinking with the pills.

Different pills are used for different maladies. And different amounts for different ages and weights. Be guided by your doctor. However, by reading background inforation, you may be able to ask relevnt questions, and to notice side effects.

Useful Websites

https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/codeine/side-effects-of-codeine/

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How To Find & Use Dollar and Pound Signs In Text $$$$$ ?

Dollar and Pound Signs On Keyboards

$$$$$$$

 When buying a laptop overseas, or at home, note whether the keyboard has dollar signs or pound signs on the keyboard. America uses dollars. On my Dell keyboard, the dollar sign is above the number 4.

So does Singapore. In Singapore you add the capital leter S before the dollar sign, S$. 

To Change Keyboard Signs

If you are technically minded, you can go into settings and re-configure any key on your keyboard. We did this once when the key for full stop was stuck. We switched it with the colon which was rarely used. For several days I instinctively used the full stop key with no result. So we found that you need to print and stick on the new sign on the key.

Then one day we cleaned the keyboard with a blower. The Key must have been jammed by a microscopic piece of grit, or toast. We removed the sticker, then reconfigured the keyboard settings back to the way they were originally.

To Show Pound Signs On Laptop Keyboards

I have a Dell laptop which has dollar signs. To show pounds I can list them as GBP, as is done by some websites. I sometimes do that here in blogspot. You read my posts in blogspot where they are read-only and cannot be altered. I create posts in blogger with a passcode.

EDITING ON A PHONE

However, I can also use my Samsung phone which was bought in the UK. This has pound signs. So I can create posts on my phone with the pound signs. Alternatively, create posts on my laptop, then edit on my phone to insert the pound signs.

Keyboard Characters' Numbers 

If you have a separate numeric keyboard, you can type in the codes for certain characters which you use frequently. My husband has a list of those he uses a lot. But he knows off by heart the numbers he uses frequently. For example 0163 is the pound sign. For French and some other languages, the acute accent used frquently on the letter e is 0233/

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How To Find Lost Items

 

Hunting for lost items? I used to lose my magnifying glass. Until I designated a specific place for it. Far right of my middle bookshelf. On my desk, front right near the front of my laptop. 

Take measures to prevent repeated loss.

Note where you lost your spectacles last time. My list is

LOST & FOUND LOCATIONS

In the car - in the glove box. Between the seats. Under the seats. Under a blanket. 

In the Bedroom - dropped on the floor between the bed and the  bedside table (which Americans call the night stand).

The Bathroom

The windowsill

The side of the bath

On top of towels o the towel rail.

On the toilet lid - this is the best place.

On Your Chair

1 You are sitting on them.

2 They are behind the cushion behid your back.

3 On the floor under the chair or desk.

4 Dropped inside your shoes.

Clothes

Accessories

In the straw bag you took to the bach on holiday.

Inside the straw hat or baseeball cat.

1 How To Locate Spectacles

Keep spectacles in a glasses case. Mark the case with a coloured ribbon. Attach the ribbon to a bedside light. Attach the ribbon to a desk lamp.

How to List Lost and Found Places

List in an email sent to yourself filed under WHERE IS IT?

In a whatsapp labelled LOST & FOUND.

Inside the front cover of your diary.

In a list on the fridge door.

On a pincbard in the office or home study.

LOST NEEDLES

In the item you were sewing.

On the floor under your chair.

On your lap or in your clothes.

In a pin cushion.

In the corner or edge of the sewing box.

In the cotton reel or polyester thread.

BOTTLE CAP OR JAR TOP

In the sink.

In the dishwasher.

On the work surface.

Under the bottle or jar.

In the waste paper bin.

LOST KEY(S)

In your pocket.

In the lining of your jacket.

In your bag, tote bag or rucksack.

Still in the door lock.

Hanging on the key rack.

Picked up by mistake by a visitor or workman.

How to swallow pills

1 Ask the doctor for smaller pills, or liquid medicine.

2 When buying, look for chewable tablets. I found chewable vitamin D and clacium in the UK. Boots sells chewable tablet with vanilla flavour, and the sixe of the tablet show on the label o the outside of the plastic bottle.

2 Grind up pills, if the doctor or pharmacists says it is OK to do so (Pill directions ought to tell you this. If you can, write to the manfacturer.) 

 3 Swallow a large gulp of water before takig the pill. Then put the pill in your mouth and take three large gulps of water. Take another three gulps of water to prevent a pill which sticks in your throat from being brought up.

Note which pills are small. For example, I have codeine pain killer which is small.  My panadol tablets are larger. 

I buy chewable vitamin D and calcium tablets.

Boots sell their own brand oval vitamin D and calcium tablets, vanilla flavour, with the size shown on the packaging.

Useful Websites

USA website

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/two-tricks-make-easier-swallow-pills-201411137515#:~:text=It%20can%20be%20caused%20by,prepare%20your%20food%20for%20swallowing.

UK NHS (National Health Service)

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/problems-swallowing-pills/

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Repair Broken Pottery, vases and lamp bases with glue and gold paint - kin-tsugi

 

The Japanese name for this is kintsugi. Kin means gold. Tsugi means repair. 

For this you need

1 Your broken pottery item

2 A superglue

3 A gold felt tip pen and/or

4 A gold glitter pen

Why Not Use Gold Spray?

I considered using gold spray, which I already had.

I had a gold paint spray. I decided against using this because of the risks of

a) Breathing it in 

b) Getting it on my hands

c) Getting it on my clothes

d) Damaging nearby items

e) Extra time spent covering the table and floor

f) Needing to discard plastic or cardboard covered in paint, thus adding to landfill

g I would need to use more paint to cover the entire vase.

h) I wanted to cover only the cracks because the green base matched the lampshade

Verdict - Success

1 I was pleased to have my lamp restored

2 I had put together the pieces which were cluttering up the house waiting until I thought of a way of repairing the item.

3 I was proud of my skill

4 My husband was impressed by my resourcefulness and creativity

5 He said the restored lamp base looked like the gold pattern abstract was part of the design, better than the plain green original.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi