September
1
- Up late after 8am . . .walked . . sat in the
garden and attended to a couple of the 'dings' on a couple of
floorboards, cutting out the really bad pieces and gluing in
patches! Think I'll be having a 'day off' today. I'm aching real
bad, feel pretty exhausted, and my right hand is a bit swollen
(!!?) from all that holding onto the wire brush while scrubbing
the floorboards!! . . Mum called in with the paper and food
donations for coffee and chats for a couple of hours . . ate Mum
donated ham rolls with crisps and some chocolate . . napped.
Didn't wake until gone 7pm!! . . walked - with a pair of mole
grips in my back pocket! One of the expensive houses I pass every
time I walk, has put a (perfectly good looking - white) toilet
out in their yard with a bunch of other stuff near their bins, as
if they are going to be throwing it away. There is a white toilet
seat on the toilet. If it's being thrown away and if it's not
broken - that would be a perfectly acceptable replacement for the
awful, thick, dark wood and corroded brass fittings one, I
inherited with the house. Called at the house in the dwindling
light on the way back from the walk. A woman in a bath robe
eventually came to the window (she'd just got out of the shower
apparantly!). Doing my best 'I'm terribly sorry to bother you',
Mr. Nice guy act., I asked about the toilet seat. It WAS being
thrown away, and as is often the way with 'older' people (who've
known hardship the like of which is now little known) , she
seemed delighted that someone could make use of any of it, and
gave me permission to have it. So - I had to walk all the way
back home trying to hide someones toilet seat under my arm. lolol
He who dares? :o) Quickly replaced my grotty wooden seat and then
gave everything a good clean. Wow does that look better. Plain
and simple white. On VERY close inspection, it does look as
though there is a hairline fracture developing, but it's still
better than what I've replaced. It can at least be kept clean.
Very pleased. One less thing. .TVd but once again, ended up
listening to rock music radio channels. My current favourite is
'Arrow Radio', Sky channel 0161. Good old classic rock (and at 11
o'clock on a Saturday night, interspersed with classic comedy
extracts - which seems a bizarre but actually highly acceptable
mix, particularly for a Saturday night. I even had to phone PS
rather late, to tell him to check it out.). Hardly ever a track
not worth listening to, but on the odd occassion I don't like a
track, I flick over to one of the other two rock channels. Only
once so far have I found all three, simultaneously playing stuff
I didn't want to hear. :o). . PCd this . . ate biscuits . .
TVd/PCd until early. s
2
- Woken by Sally around 7:15am . . walked. .
worked on the floor and skirtings . .ate crisps, cheese and salad
with three pieces of bread and butter and then some chocolate
around 4pm . . set my alarm for 7pm and then napped . . walked.
Blimey - walking in the dark already. :o( . . .PCd briefly . .
-/unfinished/-
3 - Woke
later than I'd wanted, around 7:30am . . .walked . . left Sally
at home and drove to pick up Mum before heading off to do some
serious, 'get it all done in one go' shopping. . started off at
the pet store (after a quick browse in the 'Staples' office store
adjacent) and spent a shocking £60.50 (on 2x17Kg sacks of PAL,
and 60xtins of mostly PAL)!!! . . encouraged by Mum, we stopped
off at a nearby Bensons furniture store to have a look at new
double beds. It's one of those things I was definitely going to
buy at some point, together with a cooker etc etc. (all part of
not wanting to have to blow all my remaining savings on new
windows for the house!). To cut a long 'laying around umming and
ahhing' story short, somehow encouraged by Mum's presence and the
alleged end of the sale in a couple of days, I decided to buy one
- not entirely the cheapest! A four drawer divan and mattress,
together with perhaps a rather 'girly' 'Paris' metal white/brass
headboard, which I figured would look very cool in that front
bedroom. The prices on the tickets added up to somewhere around
£630 which is what I was expecting to pay. Mum however, had
different ideas! She's been watching daytime TV shows with 'Dom'
where they send people into stores and try and blag huge
discounts off the marked prices. She kinda 'forced' me into
having a bit of a half hearted go!!! YIKES!!
- /unfinished/- . £545
On to the nearby Focus diy store to end up spending £34.83 on mostly electrical socket boxes and the like. After much agonising over the decision 'with or without', I decided to buy a 500w white floodlight WITHOUT a PIR, for illuminating the back garden (it gets SO dark out there at night).
Stopped off at Sainsburys on the way back and did a major shop for groceries and supplies (£81.34) - and I'm horrified to admit, £53.95 on 250g. of Golden Virginia tobacco!! :o(
- /unfinished/- .
4 - Woke
. .walked . ? . . walked . .?
5 - Walked.
Stopped in at the builders for more sandpaper (Sold by the metre
from a roll - £3.38 for two metres of different grades). .
worked on the floor . . called it quits around 2pm and put a coat
of undercoat on the skirtings . . left Sally at home and drove to
the Focus DIY store for another 2.5ltr can of £33.99 Ronseal
floor varnish. Somehow ended up spending £122.93!!!!! Seemed
pointless delaying, so I invested £34.99 in a 40metre JCB
extension reel which will enable me to, at least temporarily, put
power to the garage when I need it. With winter fast approaching
and the nights already well drawn in, I need to think pretty soon
about sorting out some lighting etc in that garage. Also invested
in a couple of 'cheap and nasty', flat packed pine finish boxes
(£15.99 each) just to give me somewhere to store some of my junk
and to maybe enable me to open and clear away some of the
unopened boxes I still have laying around all over the place. In
the fullness of time when I've actually amassed some proper
furniture, I figure those boxes would still be of use around the
place, either painted or stained, depending on the room they go
in - so not a 'complete' waste of money. Also scored a stand
alone PIR unit for just £5 on a 'clearance/reduced' table.
Haven't quite figured out all the outside lighting I'm gonna need
to do front and back quite yet, but I just know I'm gonna need
one of those somewhere. . stopped off briefly at Mums on the way
home and dropped off the peanuts she'd left in the car the other
day . . . dragged the ladder out of the garage and had a go at
fitting the 500w outside light to the back of the house. My
measuring and marking of the outside wall was meticulous and
perfect, to ensure the cable emerged under the floorboards inside
the immersion heater cupboard. Unfortunately, my drilling of the
wall wasn't so clever. I went in at an upward angle and the cable
eventually emerged a couple of inches higher than desirable,
awkwardly behind the skirting board (over which the cupboard was
built!). Made things awkward but got there in the end. More or
less finished off the 'outside' bit of the job except for
painting over the filler around the cable. . walked . . put a
temporary plug on the outside light wire and plugged it in to one
of the bedroom sockets to test and climb back up the ladder to
adjust. Yeah - not perfect but it'll do quite nicely. . Had a
brainwave and did a temporary hole through the ceiling in the
kitchen and dropped the spotlight cable down to a socket. That
was 'easy'. Until I sort out where I want what sort of switch,
that'll do quite nicely, 'long term temporary'. . did dish
washing chores . . ate bowls of cornflakes . . BB called . .
assembled one of the pine storage boxes I'd bought in Focus. .
TVd until bed around midnight.
6 - Woke
around 6am, snoozed on then up around 7:15am . . walked under a
clear blue sky again. Retrieved the huge bath towel I'd seen
dumped in the undergrowth last night, for use on Sally, although
it's actually better than some of the ones I'm using on me! . .
dabbed a bit of paint around where the cable for the outside
light comes through the wall before getting back to working on
the floor, gluing and filling all the little 'noticeable'
imperfections, prior to sanding more of it down. .couldn't do
much while the filler and glue dried so I lifted the floorboards
in the corner of the room and finally got round to having a go at
bricking up the weird hole in the wall beneath the boards that
goes right through the cavity into next door. Much cutting of
bricks with the disc cutter out in the garden to come up with
enough pieces to do the job, and which would fit through/in the
awkward gap. Eventually cemented them in place with great
difficulty. Not perfect - probably not 'airtight', but the best I
can do working from one side. . hosed down all the brick dust
from the garden, and with the ladder still in place, even had a
bit of a go at cleaning the part of the conservatory roof I could
reach with the broom. First time I've unwound and used that
garden hose that was left by the previous occupants coiled up on
the fence near the car port. Actually quite a nice fitting on the
end, with a selection of half a dozen or so different spray
types. . had a 'proper' look at the side of the conservatory
where it meets next doors extension (which had been flagged up by
the survey because it has no proper flashing). Blimey - no
flashing at all in fact. The rain must run straight down behind
that wood panel and go who knows where, causing all sorts of
issues. That whole leaking 'sunroom/conservatory' or whatever you
want to call it, is in desperate need of rebuilding/replacing in
its entirety!!! :o( . . . ate mushrooms, onions and grated cheese
with four pieces of bread and butter followed by chocolate . .
really wanted to get on with the 'final' sanding down of the
bedroom floor, but just couldn't resist the desire to sleep.
Napped for a couple of hours . .dabbed a little more paint on the
rear wall by the light . . walked . .sanded floorboards (by
hand!) until 9:30pm . . ate bowls of co-co pops . . BB called . .
TVd until bed around 1am. Lucinao Pavarotti died this day. a
7 - Woke
real early, snoozed on then up around 6:15am . . walked. Followed
a weird trail of sawdust along the path in BGdns and discovered
at the end of it, thrown down a slope and hacked cut and prised
open, a safe! The internal linings of the safe had been packed
with the sawdust, which seems like a weird method of construction
for such a thing!?? Must be a good reason I guess. Asked a couple
of dog walkers if they had a phone, intending to rope them in to
notifying the local police, but it turned out that one of the
ones I asked had already done so. Cool. Makes a change for it not
to be me calling the police about such a find. :o) . . . -
/unfinished/- . . varnished the bedroom floor. AT LAST!!!.
8 - Up
before 7am. The promise of yet another amazing warm and sunny day
once the early morning sea mist had burned off . . walked . . did
laundry and tidied up around the place and vacuumed some of the
layers of dust away . .had a go at putting the cheap blind up on
the small window next to the front door. Should have been a
simple five minute job but it somehow turned into a mini
nightmare - not helped by actually making a mistake and doing a
bunch of cutting away some recesses in the frame bead for
nothing!! . .Mum popped in for chats and coffee for a couple of
hours with the paper and food donations . . ate Mum donated
sausage rolls with crisps and chocolate . . napped . . succeeded
in putting the blind up next to the front door by completely
removing the top bead and then gluing in another scrap of wood
cut from some hanging around in the garage . . walked . .
assembled the second pine box I'd bought in focus and put it in
the other living room alcove . finally got round to putting a
plug on my old stereo and hooked up the speakers and connected it
to the audio output on my Sky box so I can make the most of the
music channels when I'm in the mood. Got it all hooked up and
working in time to watch David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, live in
concert at the Albert Hall on BBC1. . touched base with BB . .
TVd until bed after midnight. aa
9 - Up around 7:15am . . .walked under the grey
sky. .'poked' at the back bedroom floorboards and started the
'final' screwing down of some of the floorboards. Should have
been a simple enough job but it ended up with me having to remove
every screw and carefuly 'grind' out some of the varnish from
every hole, before putting the screw all the way back in.
Wouldn't have been 'so' bad if my electric screwdriver hadn't
decided it was already time to break!!!!! No reverse gear
anymore! What a rip off. I confess to losing my temper and
throwing the thing out onto the landing floor in disgust. (Make
note to self - the next time you buy an electric drill, buy one
with a variable speed control so it can double up as a
screwdriver.) . So - that's the room pretty much there, except
for gloss painting the skirtings, etc. (which will have to wait
until after PS's visit or else he'll be made ill with the fresh
paint fumes!) and putting a few bits of emulsion here and there
where the floorboard cleaning splashed the wall. Looks pretty
good I reckon. :o)
- /unfinished/- . . . . . walked . . pottered around and opened
up and sorted out a few of my boxes, and actually got round to
hanging up some of my long-unused clothes. Damn - I need some
coat hangers. . touched base with BB . . TVd until bed.
10 - Walked
and carried on down town in search of some coat hangers and to do
a bit of a tour of the charity shops. Managed to get a very small
handful of hangers from a clothes shop for nothing. . finally
'bit the bullet' and determined to devote (waste!) the day to
trying to sort out my faulty PC. It's become a bit of a
'blackness' hanging over me, and it's reached the point where
I'll do anything other than have to go and turn the damn thing
on. Haven't even done my journal for days - or is it weeks?!!! .
My plan was to simply remove the possibly faulty drive,
disconnect and isolate my secondary (300GB SATA - data) drive for
safety, instal another (guess I have quite a few laying around)
and then re-instal windows and everything, run it for a while and
see if that resolves the problem (and PROVES the drive
WAS faulty - although I guess it 'could' have been a
virusy/configuration type problem, despite running up-to-date
Virgin supplied PCGuard anti virus) . Couldn't be bothered to
build up a machine just to go through all my larger drives to see
if anything I wanted to keep was on them, so I simply plumped for
an old 40GB drive and without looking at what was on it, started
the switch over / partition / format / re-instal etc. Usual hours
and hours of messing around. :o( . . . cooked and ate four small
cheese burgers during the Windows instal nonsense. Somehow ended
up continuing battling with it all, ALL day! Big headache and SO
in need of a nap but by early evening I was pretty much up and
running, on-line and done with downloading massive quantities of
Windows updates and anti virus etc, etc. . walked . . Aimlessly
surfed for several hours, just trying to use the PC enough to
know whether or not the intermitant problem was still going to
occur, or if it really WAS a fault with the removed hard drive
and was resolved. . . BB called . . ate a banana and biscuits . .
PCd until early WITHOUT any problems. :o) aa
11 - Up
around 7am . . walked . . straight back to the PC and fitted the
brand new 320GB SATA drive I've had sitting around in a box for
the last year or so! Partitioned, formatted and then made a
complete 'backup' copy of all the 'precious' data
(photos/music/websites/etc, etc) on my second 300GB SATA hard
drive. (I keep all my data including
e-mails, downloaded programs, personal files, etc, etc on one
drive, and only use the main C drive for running windows and
programs etc. (together with copies of just a handfull of the
more often altered personal files from the other drive as a
backup. Seems to make things easier when I run into difficult to
resolve virus/hardware type problems. Easy to quickly open up the
machine and disconnect the 'precious' and keep it safe.) . the
actual copying of the files took almost a couple of hours so I
used the 'down time' to do some gardening (badly overgrown and
neglected where I've been spending all my time decorating the
back bedroom!). Mowed both lawns and then set about doing a major
trim of the back garden hedges. All was going ok until the hedge
trimmer went up in smoke - quite literally! Bugger! :o( Well THAT
didn't last long then did it! What a rip off! Wonder if I dare
trying to take that back and get my money back, without any of
the packaging or the receipt - the same as the electric
screwdriver!! Lesson learned. Do NOT buy cheap crap from Focus
EVER again! Awful how these things work out isn't it. It's 'hard
up' people with little money who inevitably buy that sort of
cheap stuff, and it's those very people who can least afford it
who are ripped off by being sold crap that'll break right away!
:o( . .ended up exhaustingly battling on with a pair of hand
shears (did I inherit those with the house, or - I have a
sneaking suspicion/vague recollection I may have actually
salvaged them and pulled them out of that guys skip down the road
in Bristol!) Actually they turned out to be remarkably effective
and I managed, with the use of the old loft ladder propped up
here and there against the body of the hedges/pergola etc, to get
the job done pretty well. . cut enough of the debris up into
small pieces to more or less fill the compost bin, and then caved
in and just stuffed the rest into my spare green dustbin for
attention some other time. Headachey . . trimmed my hair and
beard before showering. . ate four pieces of bread and butter, a
bag of crisps, a defrosted pork pie, grated cheese and a bunch of
'salady' stuff . . napped . . walked . . back to the PC and
removed the pristine 'back-up/copy' SATA drive and returned it to
the safety of its cardboard box. Feels good to have finally got
round to doing that. Now all I have to do is figure out the
safest place to store it. . put in yet more hours (what a
terrible waste of time - and there must be people all over the
world wasting time in a similar manner!! Imagine what could be
acheived with all that time and effort if we didn't all have PCs
to consume our lives!?) setting up programs and rebuilding
connections and e-mail accounts etc, etc, etc (with the
occasional mistake requiring a restore - only to find you haven't
set a restore point recently, so you have to do a bunch of it all
over again! Arrrgggh! Infuriating.). Actually set up Outlook
Express for my 'Telsweb' webspace mail for the first time ever.
Big mistake successfully testing it - I had over 600 junk mails
to download (and that for a mail address I've never used/given to
anyone!!! Grrrr) . . BB called in the middle of things. Called
her back later. . TVd very briefly for a break and ate a couple
of bananas and some chocolate . . PCd more until early. Getting
there - very slowly. Almost mostly back up and running where I
want to be. aa
12 - Up
around 8am . . .walked in the sun and carried on down town to see
if the clock I'd spotted in a charity shop the other was still
there. It wasn't. What WAS there next to the harbor was a small
table top type of sale. Scored a cheap quality, tin with a brass
effect finish (not unlike I used to have in Bristol), replacement
for my living room waste bin for £4. :o) On to another couple of
charity shops and scored a couple of small matching, as-new table
lamps (aluminium type finish, candle stick style with near white
shades )for £7.50. Probably shouldn't have bought those because
they really should be brass to match everything else everywhere,
but I figure for the time being they will be ok for bedside lamps
(when I finally manage to get myself a bedside table or two!). .
ate a banana and then back to the PC to continue the
re-instal/setup of everything and to PC a bit of this (only to
find the broadband ISP was pretty much down!) . .tried to get on
with something but no - it's no good. I've SO much to do all over
the place, but I just haven't the energy to do any of it right
now. . cooked and ate four sausages with chips and bread and
butter . . . napped the afternoon away . . .walked . . PCd this
trying to recall stuff from the last week and more. Quite simply,
I can't. It's mostly been just a blurr of working on that back
bedroom and latterly the damn PC! Usually, even if I'm too busy
to update this, I'll at least make a memory jogger note or two.
With the PC acting up and me so loathed to turn it on, I've not
even done that, so the daily minutia is lost!
13 - Up
around 7:30am . . .walked. . loaded up the car with the big weird
dark wood 'bookcase' type unit that was in the kitchen when I
moved in, together with the spice rack and a couple of surplus
odds and ends (curtains/lampshades, etc) and drove to the charity
shop to see if they'd have it all. Figured it was worth 'rushing
it' down there like that, because there was a dark wood corner
display unit for sale in the shop the other day, which absolutely
matched. Exactly the same make of furniture, whatever it was. Who
knows - maybe the previous owners had donated the corner unit?
Thankfully, the store happily took it all, so a little more room
in my 'dumping ground' garage at last. . drove on to the other
charity shop to buy the two small pine units I'd seen there
yesterday. They aren't something I actually want, but for £10
the pair would do as a couple of temporary bedside tables.
Wouldn't you know it - they were sold! Damn -they sure do have a
quick turn around in all those charity shops. You can't think
about it overnight at all. 'He who hesitates' and all that. :o( .
. stopped off briefly at home and picked up the burned out hedge
trimmer and the electric screwdriver with no reverse gear and
then left Sally at home and drove to the Focus DIY store to plead
my case for a refund. Thankfully they agreed to giving me a
refund by credit notes, so that was a relief. Wandered around the
store for ages looking at everything again (because 'everything'
is pretty much what I'm gonna need to buy at some point!) ,
before managing to just get back in the car and head home without
buying anything . stopped for petrol on the way (31.61ltrs@£30).
. had a climb up the ladder (still propped against the back wall
of the house since I put the garden light up) and examined the
'feel' of the first couple of rows of roof tiles. Blimey - they
are pretty slippery!!! Damn. I don't see me ever risking THAT
without a proper roof-hook ladder (like I left behind in
Bristol!! :o( ). That's a blow. :o( . .had a go at seeing if the
ladder could actually be threaded through the house rather than
having to walk it all the way down the street and around. Yayy -
with some difficulty, it IS possible. . with the ladder out the
front, I figured I may as well have a close look at the upstairs
bay window, with a view to identifying problems and planning an
attack strategy for trying to make them more water tight for the
winter (which IS of course what I should have done long ago,
instead of messing around decorating bedrooms - with winter now
almost upon me!). . ended up spending hours doing a bit of
serious 'botching' to the small rotting area beneath the metal
'canopy'. Applied a bunch of filler/PVA mix to gaps and moving
bits. My plan is to eventually paint over all the filler to make
it weatherproof-ish, and then hopefully 'cap over' the entire
area with some of the bits of PVC I salvaged from a neighbours
skip the other day. . removed the house numbers and had a go at
scraping off and then re-painting, the section of wall where the
paint all bubbled off in the rain. Can't figure out why I'm
having such a hassle with that bit of wall. Could that old paint
be 'off' in some way I wonder? . . used the loft ladder and hand
shears to trim all the front garden hedges. HARD
work, but got the job done eventually. . skipped food and didn't
stop all day until gone 6pm! . . walked. Spent ages messing
around with the camcorder taking photos of yachts and failing to
get a picture of the couple of dolphins rising amongst them.
Beautiful evening, but boy does it cool off real quick once the
sun goes down. . . ate spam sandwiches with crisps and then a
whole pack of Mr Kipling slices! . . TVd ready for bed by 9pm! .
. ate bowls of cornflakes . . touched base with BB . . TVd but oh
my god, I felt SO tired. Ended up laying across the sofa and
chair pretty much unable to move for hours. Actually too tired to
get up and go to bed until around 1am! s
14 - Up
around 7:30am . .with PS arriving later, I don't really feel able
to get into anything 'major', so I think the day will be spent
just sorting stuff out and making a place for him to sleep etc.
.put laundry on and then walked. .put another coat of paint on
the bit of wall by the front door. . pottered around sorting
stuff out and tidying up a little while doing more laundry. .
took another hanging basket hook down from the back wall of the
house and filled a bunch of old screw holes with PVA/filler . .
returned Mums ansaphone call and touched base . .briefly PCd a
bit of this. Damn - I WAS right. The clock on the PC isn't
keeping time! What the hell is it with this PC at the moment?! I
presume that is the motherboard battery gone down? (I trust that
has nothing to do with my now apparantly corrected faulty
hard-disk symptoms?) . . pottered around . . ate . . napped . .
walked in full rubber gear in the rain . . .ate ham rolls . . TVd
until PS arrived after 9pm . . TV chats and beer until around 2am
15 - Woken
by PS/Sally up and around before shortly after 6am, although PS
went back to bed . . sat in the rising sun in front garden for
coffee and cigarettes . . . walked and then carried on down to
the harbor for PS paid for coffee and muffin at a harborside
outdoor cafe table before getting the 10 o'clock ferry (£6 each,
return) over to Tqy. Sat on the foremost benches at the bow for
the half hour trip over. Sally was brilliant and took it all in
her stride without much reaction at all, mostly just laying down
to sleep on the deck like she does in the back of the car. The
sea appeared to be really calm with just a little chop on the
surface, but it turned out there were slightly larger 'hidden'
waves rolling through occasionaly (a 'swell'?), which actually
made for an interesting trip, with that occasional 'leaving your
stomach behind' feeling. .aimlessly wandered around and then
walked up through all the shops in the crowds, just having a look
around before wandering back along to have a look at the beach.
Ended up just wandering around like that for hours! Incredible
weather for mid September. People swimming and sunbathing and
wandering around in nothing but shorts, etc. Had a proper
'riviera' feel about it all, and the best thing about it -
WITHOUT the high-season crowds. . .ate PS purchased ham eggs and
chips at an outside table at a harborside pub . .briefly waited
with the small crowd and then back on the ferry for the 3 o'clock
return. Sally seemed eager to get back on it and tried to drag me
through the small queue to get on (although I think she was just
influenced by 'going with the flow of the pack')!?? Once again we
took up the same seats on the bow. Even more of a 'lumpy' ride
back. Played around with the camcorder taking still photos lots,
but sadly hardly a one turned out to be worth all the bother. Shame really - a HUGE number of small sail
boats were all out doing whatever it was they were doing. Never
seen so many - the horizon appeared to be absolutely covered in
them. Extraordinary spectacle. Half way across, we passed the
identicle sister ship of the ferry we were on - both sailing at
the same time every hour from the opposite ends of the trip. . .
within five minutes of getting off the ferry, and heading back
along the harbor edge, poor Sally proved to have developed a bad
stomach and embarassed me by having to do a 'difficult-to-scoop',
poop! Poor dog. Sea sick? Boy - thank god she'd managed to hold
it until we got off the ferry!!! A VERY lucky escape!! . . coffee
and chats in the garden until all too soon, it was Sally's walk
time - again!! Walked with PS and took him on the walk up the
hill I can see from the front of my house, to show him the view
and give him that special perspective on where my house is in
relation to everything. Sat at 'the viewpoint' until the sun had
disappeared behind the horizon before heading back. . ate salad,
cheese, pork pie, two pieces of bread and butter and crisps etc.,
although PS appeared to leave rather a lot. I don't think he's
used to eating half a going brown iceburg lettuce or a going-off,
soft, leathery skinned tomatoe!! lol . . TVd . . BB called . .TVd
struggling to stay awake. I was only half way through a PS
donated beer when I just couldn't do it any more and HAD to go to
bed, shortly after midnight. das
16 - Woken
by Sally 'staring at me' around 7:30am . .several coffees and
cigarettes in the garden before joined by PS . . walked late, the
long walk through the woods and down onto the beach, to sit
around in the sun for quite a while. A family of five or six in
individual canoes were paddling around the coast exploring, and
briefly stopped off at the beach for a rest - which gave us
something to watch. All this 'theme park' type activity around
here kinda starts to rub off after a while and makes you want to
have a go. Paddling around the coast in those canoes looked like
a real neat thing to do. If I didn't have Sally, (and if I wasn't
a committed 'land lubber') I guess I could do that sort of thing
- walk a canoe down there and paddle away for the day or more. .
eventually walked on round to F. cove and ended up sat at one of
the tables at the little cafe there and had ourselves a
breakfast. Very pleasant relaxed attitude, with not very many
people around and the cafe owner treating Sally to a handful of
biscuits etc (as everyone says - with the view and eating out
etc., it could almost be somewhere foreign). Sat there for quite
a while watching the world go by, and amusing ourselves by
recognising comedy characters from the 'Fast Show' everywhere we
looked - even down to the 'manic depressive artist and his wife'.
A guy dressed in mostly black, more suitable for an office than
the beach, came wandering down carrying lots of gear, with his
wife behind carrying even more, and set up his easel and folding
chair etc etc at the waters edge. He had the biggest collection
of brushes I've ever seen, and carefully chose a couple before
starting his oil painting (on what appeared to be a dark
brown canvas!?). We made a point of walking past him as we left,
with the slightest hint of drizzle in the air. Despite all our
whispered amusement about him, it did appear he WAS a 'proper'
artist. . eventually walked back home and PS left for home around
12:30pm. Blimey - his visit seems to have absolutely exhausted me
- Sally too! . . TVd and watched a little of the Grand Prix.
.moved the 'spare' mattress back onto my bed under my own . . PCd
and swapped the motherboard battery from the PC next door had
given me, into my own. Fingers crossed - seems to have done the
trick . . SH called to touch base . . ate chocolate biscuits . .
walked. Much cooler with a stiff breeze - very autumnal. Stopped
off at the local store and bought all four of the 'going out of
date' pasties they had there for around 30p each. . feel utterly
wiped out! Ate a pasty, crisps and some chocolate . . touched
base with BB a bit earlier than usual. I feel SO tired. . in bed
not long after 10pm! a
17 - Up
just before 7am . . walked and found 2p. .grabbed a bit more of
the PVC stuff thrown in the skip up the road. . PCd this . Mum
called to touch base . .balanced my accounts and got on top of
paperwork and such, all morning! . . cooked and ate four
defrosted sausages and chips, followed by a couple of cheap
chocolate toffee snack bars. . napped the afternoon away until
gone 5pm! . . PCd briefly reading the local news. Blimey -
offshore powerboats racing in the bay at the end of the month!!.
. . walked. Damn it's cold all of a sudden. Like a switch has
been flicked turning Autumn on! A couple of police cars appeared
to be taking names and addresses of people from an unmarked van,
near BGdns as I was leaving!!? Feel better (a little less achey)
for having done little all day. . PCd doing a bit of 'roll over'
type updating on this. Nights are drawing in real quick - total
nighttime darkness by 8pm. My broadband appears to be down (and
stayed that way all night!!)!!?. . BB called . . PCd messing with
a handful of pictures (Ahoy). . . ate bowls of cornflakes . . to bed
around midnight. a
18 - Up
just after 7am . . walked in the cold sun. .broadband is STILL
down (or is it something my end?!)!?? Woooops - it WAS something
my end. Somehow the password in the connection dialogue box had
got itself altered!?? Lucky not to have been blocked with all
that trying to log on with a duff password! . aimlessly surfed a
bit and ended up (not for the first time) looking at all the
bedside cabinets in Argos. Almost tempted to go buy a couple,
just to get me by for the timebeing (should I buy white an
replace the handles or paint a cheaper bare pine?), but managed
to resist - again, because to buy a pair of even the cheapest, is
quite an investment. . . with a sunny day forecast before the
possibility of rain for the rest of the week, I ended up spending
most of the day, up and down the ladder, getting serious with the
'botch weatherproofing' (hopefully!) of the front bedroom bay
windows. Finished applying the last of PVA/filler I wanted to do
above the windows, and then removed my 'test' layers of ugly
brown silicon sealant I'd put on in the early part of the year.
Cleaned around every one of the ten panes (pains!) of glass with
white spirit before eventually sealing around them ALL with
almost an entire tube of clear sealant. Not pretty close up (a
good finish takes much practice - and a licked finger to smooth
it does NOT work!) but actually not 'too' noticeable from either
the ground OR even inside the bedroom. Some 'immigrant' guy
walking along the road, called out to me at one point and I
walked to the gate to have a word as Sally did her guard dog
thing. He thought I was a window installer! lol Must look ok.
lolol ) Assuming I made a decent enough job of that, and once I
get some paint on the filler etc. (and maybe even cap over a
bunch of the wood frames/filler etc with PVC pieces - I have yet
to do a similar job on the living room windows!), if the rain
STILL gets in , I'm gonna be fairly stumped as to how!! Slow hard
work, with much precarious 'no hands' hanging off the top of the
ladder, bending over backwards with the silicon gun! Had to
reposition the ladder many times to reach all five panes during
the different phases of the work. I can calculate an absolute minimum
of twenty times climbing up and down - and probably nearer fifty
overall, given all the messing around and occasionaly dropping
things! . . while working up the ladder, the builders from the
house up the road were finishing off the bulk of their
construction work and were tidying up and loading up the skip
(from which I'd already removed most of everything made of PVC,
including a FULL length of as-new box section guttering). There
was a bit of banter amonsgt them about who'd have this and that,
which gave me the opportunity to call out and say "Can I
have them?". They welcomed me to have whatever I wanted, so
I flew down the ladder to go and have a look at the cheap
melamine 'tables' I could see thrown in there. They were two
melamine 'open boxes' with small circular bare chipboard table
tops. The builder guy was apologetic that he'd just broken one of
the panes of glass. Huh? Turns out, they'd each had a circular
piece of expensive ground-edge glass to go on top. I've seen such
things used in various peoples porches hereabouts. They
completely cover the unit with a piece of nice cloth and have the
glass on top and use them as small display type tables. For such
a thing it doesn't at all matter what the units underneath look
like, so they WERE pretty ropey looking with some of the white
edging etc coming away, but I figured as a temporary solution,
I'd be able to cut the chipboard tops square, put on some paint
and use them as bedside cabinets. I very quickly moved them into
my hallway, complete with the one remaining circle of glass
(which could well end up being some sort of coffee table or some
such in the future). . one of the older builder guys appeared to
be very easy going and talkative ('So and So & Sons' - I got
the impression he was So and So) and went on about coming across
lots of things being thrown away - 3 piece sweets, a double bed
recently (!) etc, and then went on to say they had a store room
around the corner which was full of builders type 'stuff'
including maybe useful bits of PVC, which he'd only recently
managed to re-open after having it locked up for years. I was
welcome to have a look in it to see if there was anything of use
to me!!! Blimey. So happy was he making the suggestion, he even
had me get in his van and drive round with him to have a look at
it all! There was some difficulty opening the rusty padlock on
the ivy covered garage door, but eventually he managed it to
reveal a MASS of timber, PVC sections, all manner of
unidentifiable but probably very useful 'stuff' - but also a saw
bench, concrete lintel, ladder, loft ladder, odds and ends - so
much stacked to the ceiling, it wasn't possible to really
actually go in or see what WAS there. I tried to climb in a
little, but it was all cobwebs like something out of Indiana
Jones or Lord of the Rings etc. Got immediately covered in them
(and maybe something else! I was all itchy and maybe even bitten,
all the rest of the day until I eventually took a shower!!!!!)
and pretty quickly retreated because it really did seem quite
possible to get actually caught up in them, so thick was the
garage-deep curtain!! The conversation basically went along the
lines that they wanted to eventually clear it all out (maybe
retaining 'some' of it), so I said if they got a skip, I'd do the
work to sort through the stuff and fill it. That was how it was
left and he drove me back home where he jotted down my name and
phone number on a scrap of paper he had laying around. Whether or
not he actually gets back to me about it, we shall see. I suspect
not. You know what builders are like. Much talk and then too
busy. I guess I could call them if I dare? We'll see. . as I was
being dropped back home, I spotted a toilet freshly dumped in the
skip. What a waste. A quality 'Royal Daulton' pan, with a pretty
good-quality white seat on it! I couldn't help myself - I undid
it and - well - I now have a toilet seat collection! lololol
There are a couple of pin-prick like marks on the lid where it
was thrown in the skip, so I'm not sure it's worth swapping with
what I have at the moment, but it IS better quality. . during the
day while working on the windows I made full use of the sun and
put another coat of masonary paint on the wall by the front door,
and on a bit of the back wall by the kitchen window, stained by
rust and where I'd filled the holes from some planter brackets
I'd removed. . finished with the windows for the day, I had a
proper look at the display tables from the skip. I don't believe
it! Surmised from a slight chamferred detail on the top edge,
those bare chipboard circular table tops appeared to be, one
glued, one screwed, onto the top of what were presumably once a
couple of cheap bedside cabinets! The screwed top came off real
easy, but of course sadly leaving a few screw holes in the middle
of the cabinet top. The glued one was harder to remove but I
managed in the end with only a hint of a few marks left on the
revealed surface once I'd scrubbed it with white spirit. Both
cabinets would benefit from dismantling and gluing
back together, but they'll do for me for the time being. How cool
is THAT! :o) Rushed them up to the bedroom, put my newly aquired
bedside lamps over some of the marks, and an old clock radio I
inherited with the house over the screw holes. Voila. They are
almost exactly what I had in mind for a temporary solution.
EXCELLENT! How weird it is that stuff I want turns up like that.
It isn't the first time that sort of thing has happened. In fact
(with the exception of a large suitcase of monies! lol), it keeps
on happening doesn't it!!!???!!! These cabinets are a very clear
example of it. I DO NOT believe in 'hocus pocus' - trouble is - I
think it may well believe in me! . . around 5pm I screwed the
house numbers back on the wall by the door. If that bit of paint
wrinkles and bubbles off in the rain again, I'm gonna be REALLY
pissy/confused/at a loss. . messed around in the living room with my
little electronic indoor outdoor thermometer I've had sat there
for months, and managed to eventually thread the sensor wire
through the window frame where the aerial lead comes in and
screwed it to the wall, so it'll now give me a 'proper' warning
of how cold it is outside (useful for determining how much to
wear for Sally's walks) - and how cold my poorly insulated house
is really getting. A silly little job but I thought I may as well
do it, to cover up one of the eyesore exposed red wall plugs in
the living room wall, from where I've removed a nasty piece of
ugly plastic trunking, which the previous occupants had used to
route the aerial lead down the wall!. . walked and stopped off at
the store on the way back for something to eat which turned out
to be a large pork pie and some going cheap sandwich rolls . .TVd
and ate the whole pork pie with lettuce, tomatoes, onion and
three of the sandwich rolls and then some chocolate . . touched
base with BB . .prolonged the 'pleasure of waiting' for as long
as I could, before going up to spend a little time in the bedroom
- to feel pleased about the freebie bedside cabinets and to see
what the £7.50 the pair, bedside lights looked like lit up in
the dark. Blimey. Feels pretty cozy in there, lookin' like that.
Very pleased. :o) Really quite looking forward to getting my new
bed now (only a few more days), to really finish off the look. .
TVd until exhausted to bed around midnight. saa
19 - Up
before 7am . . slow getting going (wow my back is aching/fragile.
All that bending over backwards on the ladder!) and then walked
the long walk down through the woods before carrying along into
town, to tour the charity shops (Sally was given dog-treats in
two of them :o) ) and eventually draw some spending money out of
the building society. An occasional hint of drizzle and the
threat of showers in the air. . with the deteriorated weather
there was no getting on with more work on the windows, and my
aching back and general tiredness saw me end up just pottering
around and PCing and fighting the desire to return to bed . . Mum
popped in for chats with food donations for a couple of hours . .
ate Mum donated ham rolls with crisps . . PCd . . napped . .
walked . . PCd this - at length until late . .ate biscuits and
TVd, and ended up getting engrossed in 'The Mothman Prophecies'
film on BBC1. Actually a bit unsettling, guessing it was the
bridge half way through, and in the light of that recent
real-life bridge collapse in the states!! :o| . . briefly touched
base with BB and then PCd before eventually to bed in the early
hours. saa
20 - Up
real late getting on for 9am! . . walked even later in drizzle
showers . .pottered around, TVd/PCd and somehow wasted the day
away. . fried and ate a whole pack of Mum donated bacon with four
eggs, a tin of baked beans and some bread and butter mid
afternoon . . napped until around 7pm!! . . walked late, with a
torch in full darkness already. :o(. . TVd and ate a bunch of
biscuits. 'Recycled' dog ends to reclaim the unused tobacco. . BB
called . .TVd/PCd until deep into early. Damn - I'm slipping into
lacking the energy or desire to get on with stuff and being all
nocturnal again! Oh how different life is on prozac.
21 - Up
late . . walked . . feel tired and strangely light headed!? More
drizzle showers. . .pottered around, TVd/PCd, once again spending
hours surfing nonsense. During the messing around I downloaded
and installed Yahoo messenger for the first time in well over a
year. Seemed pretty different to the last time I used it. What
was DEEPLY disconcerting was that immediately after having
successfully installed it, I had a message pop up saying that
'charlie_boyce@hotmail.co.uk' had attempted to add himself to my
contacts list!!!??? In fact, considering I've not used IM for
well over a year, it was even a little unsettling to see my old
contact list (albeit only BB and Coz1) spontaneously appear. They
keep everything on file somewhere don't they! So - with an
unfamiliar messenger all on the go, the first thing I had to do
was immediately figure out how to appear invisible to everyone -
and most definitely refuse that request to be added to the
contacts!! (Does messenger automatically tell them they've been
refused?!!!!! That's the last thing I need - to suddenly
'reactivate' some yobs interest in me!) VERY unsettling.
Unfortunately, as far as I could tell, there was no way of
determining WHEN that attempt to 'get at me' was made. Could have
been last year - could have been yesterday couldn't it - and of
course could have been anybody who may have read my journal! :o(
. . Touched base with BB and confirmed we could IM . .received a
call from the furniture company confirming my bed would be
delivered between 8am and 1pm on Monday. :o) . . napped until
around 7pm again! . . walked in the dark. Damn, damn, damn! That
bloody messenger thingy allegedly from Boyce, has screwed me up
more than I'd realised. It's taken me straight back to having all
those paranoid feelings of a year ago (keeping an eye on who is
behind me, and jumping at every car that draws near), as though
it was yesterday! Weird my memory - I can't remember what
happened last week, but I can recall that last night in Bristol,
in great detail (despite not being able to bring myself to look
back at any of it). Walking in the dark doesn't help I guess. I
don't think I've ever said it here, but I STILL sit watching TV
every night with my 4" blade lock-knife, open and at arms
reach next to me you know. Probably always will. :o( Also - when
doing this decorating/re-wiring work on the house, I get a bit
panicky if the 'mess' gets too great or goes on for too long - in
case I have to suddenly up and leave. Everything I do is done
with one eye on how saleable the house is right now,
just in case I have to suddenly leave and put it on the larket,
like I did in Bristol. THAT is why I had to push on and skip food
etc. and get those bedrooms 'mostly' done so quick. . ate ham
rolls and crisps . . BB called. . TVd . . ate bowls of corn
flakes before bed around midnight.
22 - Up
around 7:45am. That's more like it - almost 'proper' nights
sleep. .walked in sunny spells and found 5p and yet another of
those cheap plastic A4 pocket things which come in useful. . PCd
this. . did the mountain of dishwashing all morning! . . Mum
called in with the paper and food donations around midday for a
couple of hours. . ate a Mum donated large pork pie with crisps.
. managed to resist the desire to sleep and eventualy had a go at
tackling the last bit of wiring to the fuse box of the upstairs
sockets, to actually make it a ring
main. I'd been putting this off. Whoever had connected up that
consumer unit had left the insulation on the main incoming cables
a bit short, and the bare always-live cables were exposed for
around 5mm or so where they entered the main switch on the unit!
So - after routing the new cables down from upstairs, the final
messing around of removing the single old and connecting the two
new at the fuse box, had to be done VERY carefully, working an
inch from immediate death!!!! Worst bit was trying to remember
how dangerous it was as I worked at feeding the wires in,
stripping the ends and clamping them up. Nasty, but got there in
the end by around 7pm - still alive. Still need to tidy up the
new runs to the fuse box down the wall in the understairs
cupboard, and fix them permanently in place etc., but that can
wait. So, at last, I have a proper all-new ring main to all the
upstairs sockets at least. :o) . . walked. Actually turned out to
be quite a quiet, warm evening (except for the group of youths
partying in the lower pill box, with a shopping trolley and beer
bottles and debris dumped all around the place! :o( ). Sat on one
of the seats under the roof for a while watching the moonrise
before eventually heading back to sit in the front and back
gardens drinking a bottle of PS donated German beer. . TVd . .
touched base with BB . .felt a bit unwell, left half the beer and
early to bed by 11pm!
23 - Up
around 7am. . PCd this with coffee and cigarettes. .walked . .
PCd messing around with this and that and then ended up spending
hours trying to get 'Timershot' (part of 'Microsoft PowerToys for
Windows XP') to upload a webcam image to one (any!!!) of my
webspaces. No matter what I tried I just couldn't get it to do
it. Must be something to do with logon passwords, but damned if I
know what. Shame. It 'could' have done as a bare bones webcam
program . . very tired. Ate Mum donated ham rolls with crisps and
then some chocolate biscuits before somehow napping the rest of
the day away until gone 6pm!! That's a lot of sleep for one day!
Bound to be up half the night again now. :o( . . walked in the
rain . . moved my bed, etc. out of the front bedroom into the
back, and then vacuumed the revealed layers of dust and piles of
Sally hair, in preparation for tomorrows bed delivery! . . BB
called . . TVd/PCd until late. . Sis2 called, concerned that
she'd been trying to call Mum for the last couple of hours, but
couldn't get through and kept getting an engaged tone! Touched
base with Mum no problem (may have woken her up!) and then called
Sis2 back and said it must be something her end. . TVd/PCd/ate
biscuits and drank coffee and didn't feel in the least bit tired.
Somehow, with a big worrying storm blowing through in the early
hours, I ended up staying up so late/early, that with the alarm
set for 6am, by the time I WAS worn out there seemed little point
in going to bed - so I didn't!!!! I'll regret THAT later!
24 - More
weird 'dynamic' weather. By the time the 6am alarm had gone off,
the wind and rain had passed through. . walked in sunny spells
and a brief shower. Much debris all around, blown about by the
storm's strong winds. Amazing rainbow over the bay as we got
caught in a shower. Grabbed a couple of snaps for my 'Ahoy' page, but once again the camcorder wasn't really
up to the job. . . PCd this, feeling pretty light-headed tired .
.mostly sat around all morning, unable to get on with anything,
waiting for the bed delivery. Unpacked a couple of boxes and
located all my bedding and tried to sort it into single bed
(double size duvet) / double bed (king size duvet) piles etc.
.put a few things through the laundry, but as soon as it was
ready to go out on the line, the heavy showers returned and I
eventually ended up hanging everything on an airer and standing
it up in the garage! . . didn't dare get bogged down cooking
anything for lunch, in case the bed delivery turned up in the
middle of things, so quickly made a couple of ham sandwiches and
with crisps and chocolate grabbed a bite to eat around 12:45pm .
. by 1:15pm I figured it was time to start making angry phone
calls
the bed will NOT be delivered today!
walked up the post office to withdraw some cash and briefly
stopped off at Mums on the way back to share my ranting and
raving before quickly heading back (caught out in a rain shower)
to sleep! . an ansaphone message had been left by the store
salesman (hard to decipher on my ansaphone) I think suggesting
the bed 'may' be delivered on Wednesday - but he'd call back some
time to confirm that. Yeah right! Grrrr . . I was SO
frustrated/outraged/angry I had trouble going to sleep . . at
last, finally slept for just a few hours until around 6:30pm. .
walked in the dark . .touched base with BB . .TVd. According to
the news, even if they HAD tried to deliver my bed today, I
probably wouldn't have had it. There was a nasty accident between
a motorcycle, a car and an articulated lorry on the main road
into town, and the biker had been killed. From the news footage,
it even looked as though the twisted remains of his bike had gone
up in smoke!! Bizarrely, the ambulance he was initially picked up
by was involved in another accident on the way to hospital, and
he was eventually tranported by a replacement ambulance! Not his
lucky day!!! :o/ The result of all that was, the main road
(almost the only one in and out) was closed for hours and the
whole area ground to a standstill! . . ate a tin of spaghetti
bolognese covered in grated cheese with four pieces of bread and
butter . . TVd until bed around 12:45am. Strangely didn't feel
particularly tired and had difficulty getting to sleep! s
25 - Up
around 7:20am. . walked in the cool sun . . PCd this . .tried
calling SH to see if it would be today he wanted to meet, but got
no answer on either number . .pottered around, PCd, TVd and
generally somehow frittered the whole day away acheiving nothing!
Actually feel a bit 'down' - the effect of feeling let
down/'abused' over that bed nonsense I suspect. . ate a pack of
Mum donated bacon, eggs and bread and butter . . napped . .
walked. Retrieved three fluorescent strip lights from the skip
down the road and set about hooking them up to a bit of cable to
see if they worked. One of them did! Well - one out of three
isn't bad. So - when I can get round to sorting out how to mount
it and where, I have a decent light for the garage (or the attic,
or under the floor?). :o) . . TVd . . touched base with BB
briefly. . TVd . . didn't feel ready for bed and PCd for hours.
Had a bit of a dabble at trying to figure out how to update my
main website with a view to re-instating it in its entirety at
some point. STILL not sure about all that. . finally to bed not
far off 6am!! s
26 - Woken
by the ansaphone taking a call just before 9am! Returned SH call.
He was about to jump on his bike and head for the Taunton Dean
motorway services with the duty free tobacco he'd managed to get
for me (as we'd arranged he would, one day or another depending
on the weather - to give him a reason to go for a cruise). Damn!
Typical - I have only a couple of hours sleep, am really late
getting going, and that's the day I need to be early out in the
car! . .rushed to wake up with a quick coffee before putting
Sally in the car and driving her to BGdns for a quick once round
before rushing straight back. With so little sleep, I felt groggy
and rather wobbly on my feet, just like being tipsy!!!! Not a
good state to be in to be driving anywhere!. .left Sally at home
and got back in the car outside, and was litterly just turning
the key in the ignition, when I spotted a lorry coming round the
corner in front of me. Surely not! Bensons Beds emblazoned down
the side. Would you believe it! It WAS my bed being delivered -
unannounced! Lept back out of the car and quickly accepted the
delivery - although WITHOUT the headboard, which is apparantly to
follow some time because it is out of stock or something?!?
Grrrrr! . . briefly touched base with Mum and let her know the
bed had arrived, and told her I was off to meet SH and suggested
if she was passing, she could pop in and check Sally was ok if
she wished. (To be honest, I suggested that more as a just
letting her know that Sally was on her own, in case I got killed
in a motorway accident or some such). . took to the road and
crawled out of town in the usual nightmarish traffic bottleneck.
Took around half an hour to do the first ten miles as usual!!
Terribly frustrating. :o( (A fence at the site of the
fatality-bike-accident the other day, had been turned into a
makeshift shrine, and was all bunches of flowers and cards and
such, as is the habit these days.). . drove off the motorway at
the first junction past the services and then back on, to drive
back to the same services on the other side. . within ten minutes
of parking up, SH appeared with my tobacco. :o) (10x50g packs of
Golden Virginia for £55. :o)
). VERY grateful to SH. . . went into the services for brief
chats. Felt obliged to buy SH a cuppa as he'd joked I should, but
damn - £4.50 for one cup of tea and one cup of coffee!!! WHAT a
rip off! Normally I wouldn't dream of EVER having ANYTHING in the
services because of their outrageous prices. That left a bitter
taste in my wallet! :o( That would have covered a couple of days
food bill - or a week of smoking addiction!! . . back out in the
car park and briefly drove SHs Harley sportster across to where
my car was parked. Wow - a quick blip of the throttle and the
acceleration took me quite by suprise. If it wasn't for
'committing my entire existance to the wellbeing of Sally for the
rest of her life' (hard to explain to people how I am about
that), I'd be looking at finding a way of getting me another bike
- and yes, probably a large Harley chop. Now I have a garage,
even if I couldn't afford the insurance etc, to put it on the
road, I'd have somewhere to 'play' with it and stroke it. lol. .
poor SH headed off in the rain with me following in the car, and
with a quick wave as he pulled off to turn back at the next
junction, I drove straight on back home in the heavy showers . .
got back home to find Mum in the kitchen doing all my
dishwashing!!!! That was NOT why I'd asked her if she wanted to
pop in and see Sally while I was gone! lol. . ate Mum donated
corned-beef sandwiches with crisps and a little chocolate before
heading back to bed . . napped but only managed an hour or so
until woken by Sally barking at some strange guy calling at the
door. 'Fishman' was all he said, in a strangely happily excited
way, with an irish accent I think, as though I'd know what the
hell he was on about and be delighted too!?? I think he was doing
a door to door fish sales thing. Bizarre (and the little van he
had parked up the street didn't appear to be refridgerated, which
put me off a bit). I declined, although with hindsight, if I
hadn't been so half asleep, I may have been interested in an odd
Mackerel or something as an experiment.( I can't recall what
mackerel tastes like, and want to know if it would be worth
digging out Dads old fishing gear and trying to catch some from
the rocks one day, to eat - as so many people seem to. Would be
awkward with Sally though - and I haven't a clue how to go about
it.) . . unpacked the bed and did the small amount of 'assembly'
- which actually consisted of just pushing in the castors and
clipping on two inadequate looking metal clips underneath, to
hold the two base halves together. One of the sockets for the
castors was a bit 'iffy', and a bit of careful bashing waith the
palm of my hand was necessary to get the thing to fully seat in.
What I didn't initially realise was, in doing so, I cut my hand
and started leaving a trail of spots of blood all over my fresh,
clean white duvet cover! Damn, damn, DAMN! Not wanting to make
things worse and definitely not wanting to mess up my brand new
bed, in the absence of any plasters, I had to finish the job and
make up the bed awkwardly wearing a pair of gloves! Humph. .
finished dressing/making the bed up and then walked. Chilly and
breezey with a clear sky, full looking moon and some quite big
waves breaking on the rocks. . touched base with Mum . .TVd . .
ate ham sandwiches with crisps . . touched base with BB . . TVd .
. ate bowls of co-co pops . . TVd until bed, in my new bed, just
after midnight.
27 - Woken
by Sally barking at neighbourly coming and goings just before
9am! Blimey - almost nine hours - guess I caught up on yesterdays
lack of sleep! Hopefully that also suggests the bed is acceptably
comfortable. . walked in the sun and cool breeze . . PCd this and
then somehow carried on messing around with the PC all day,
experimenting with updating my site! . SH called to touch base .
. .walked. A bunch of kids were all assembled in the gun
emplacement, complete with a foot tall, bright red 'bong' for
smoking their dope! Briefly stopped off at the store and then
Mums on the way back home . . ate lettuce, bread rolls, tomato,
corned beef and pork pies . . BB called . .TVd until bed around
11pm.
28 - Up
just before 8am. . . PCd this watching BBC breakfast TV on the PC
as I did so. . walked . . PCd and somehow ended up spending
another whole day messing around with the website updating. . .
walked and stopped off at Mums on the way home to see the 'cover
for the pipes' she'd had a guy in to do. Not perfect but sure
isn't bad and makes the eyesore of pipes beneath her new central
heating boiler very acceptable. Nice job. . ate a couple of pork
pies with chips and some chocolate. . BB called briefly .
.TVd/PCd until deep into early. s
29 - Woken
by Sally barking at the postman at - good grief - almost 10:30am!
Heavy rain shower outside. What with Mum probably intending to
pop in within the hour, I think for the first time in years, I am
NOT going to walk Sally this morning. She's gonna HAVE to use the
garden, like it or not. :o| It's LONG overdue, me facing up to
denying her walks, to encourage her to do so. I think BOTH of us
are getting a bit old, tired and achey for these long,
twice-daily walks. I feel awfully guilty nonetheless!! . .PCd
working on my possible site update . . Mum popped in with food
donations for chats and coffee around midday . . . PCd the rest
of the day away, skipping food again . . . walked . . ate Mum
donated ham rolls etc around 11pm!!! . . touched base with BB
before bed before midnight.
30 - Up
around 8am . . walked. . .worked under the stairs and tidied up
the ring main cable runs a little and managed to cram them into a
spare piece of plastic trunking I'd removed from one of the
bedrooms. . worked on the hole in the floor under the stairs
which gives access to the underfloor space. Used some big
joist-sized timber from the skip down the road and glued in a
couple of pieces either side of the hole, mostly to protect the
two pipes that run either side. Put in a lot of time and effort
with the disc cutter/stanley knife/hack saw/chisels, etc, etc to
make the hole through the floorboards look neater and more
square. Used more wood from the skip to cut a couple of pieces
(nothing large enough the right thickness to do it in one) to fit
the new hole size and enable me to ditch the nasty old scrap of
melamine chipboard that WAS filling the hole. It's still an awful
squeeze to get down there (dictated by those underfloor pipe
runs/joists), but now a little easier and safer. . added some
cable clips beneath the floor and hooked up all the dangling
cables out of harms way. . about to call it a day, I thought I'd
do a quick experiment with the drill under the floor and see how
difficult it's going to be to remove bricks and make an access
hole (beneath the doorway) through to the underfloor area beneath
the living room. Within perhaps ten minutes I'd carefully
extracted my first brick. Wow - that wasn't too bad. Another
house built with pretty weak mortar! Dared to keep on going and
eventually managed to remove enough bricks to give a good
opening. Of course it really should have a reinforced lintel put
in above, but by leaving the top few runs of bricks untouched,
and then on alternate rows removing one brick, two bricks, one
brick etc, down to surface level, it should be more than safe
enough. (Much safer than what some joker has done to the wall
under the kitchen door which has left full unsupported bricks
just hanging in mid air - which I'll have to attend to at some
point!!). Is it possible? Oooh, oooh. More nasty 'potholing'
stuff, but somehow it WAS possible for me to JUST squeeze through
the gap I'd made!! (Blimey - I'm no wider than an average brick!)
Yayyyy - I was under the living room floor!! WHAT a
'breakthrough'. lolol Really pleased. It's not something you want
to be doing every day, but it IS now possible. :o) Now everything
else I have to do with regard to the wiring, is totally
'possible'. Wow. I'd thought that 'breaking through' was gonna be
a MUCH bigger job, and it'd been putting me off getting on with
things. . eventually called it quits and cleared up the mess of
tools all over the hallway floor around 6:30pm. . .walked . .ate
lettuce, tomatoes, half a large pork pie, crisps and some
chocolate . . TVd . . ate more chocolate before exhausted to bed
just after 11pm. s
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