Friday

Mr Nogues (plombier – plumber) is due back today but I also have to balance with work. Weekly check in call with the Prof Sir. Plumber isn’t here yet so Matt is in the basement doing something with electrics…

Then onto the calls with Lambeth council. Eventually Mr Nogues arrives while I am on my call. Seems he’s pretty well set up and good to go as I was left mostly in peace, apart from being asked for a bin bag. My colleague at the council however seemed pretty impressed with my GCSE french at least. A little while later and the plumbers are done so need to take a brief break from my calls. Seems that they sent us someone else’s bill (facture) rather than our quote (devis) which is why it hadn’t made any sense. [We did know that the numbers weren’t right and it didn’t include a fraction of the work – if any – that we wanted done; but we had an artisan willing to work, we didn’t really worry about the ‘details’.]

Another half day’s work done and we almost have 3 new toilets fitted. Now for Matt (and I) to run the water to them and build the ‘wall’ in the blue bathroom. Once that is done he can fit them to the wall and we are good to go. [I mean we’re probably not, there’s actually going to be a lot more work but I don’t currently know what that is so I’m going to pretend it’s easy, for once.]

Eventually, the ‘super big paddling pool’ is now mostly empty. We’ve dropped it down but it is still very heavy and hard to move but eventually we managed it and were able to start with digging down further to properly level the base.

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Meow has definitely been hunting a vole who took advantage of the soft ground. We however worked late into the night to dig up the highest part of the ground. My insistence to dig everything to the lowest possible point is not popular. However after the last effort, massive wonk and my experience of short cutting in the veg garden, I’m sticking to my guns on this one. It’s getting dark now though so time to call it a day.

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Time to reconnect with the real world, first off Tonia. That puppy is growing so quick! It’s also been a long time since we last saw the ‘kids’ ‘face to face’. It was great to catch up with them, have random chats and be away from the virtual golf course. I can’t believe that we will be back to see them soon! I miss you.

[18 June 2021]

Saturday

Ugh…. I think I drank too much! I feel like I am dying. I am glad we’re not seeing Jonny and Cressida till tomorrow. I’m going to have to get up soon, but I don’t wanna.

Ok, I’m up. Matt has continued to wire up the new main power board in the basement but now that I’m up he wants help to try to finish off the pool base.

Oh god, really, digging holes not what I want to do in 25+ sun and heat. He’s been super patient though so I really need to just suck this up, have a very large glass of powerade and get on with it. [Just pretend it’s your own personal burning man – hell.]

Digging, digging, and more digging. Then levelling. Then checking in bare feet for any stones. Then sand. Then levelling. Then dragging the pool over.

Nearly done right? Nope!

Now we need to ‘just’ dig in the tomettes that the legs will sit on. Oh, my, god. What a bloody nightmare that was. Trying to get every one of these level and level to the next was driving me mad. Thank god I have Matt. He is so chilled and so patient with everything. [I mean he is with me, that does speak volumes.]

We slowly worked around the 15 legs, getting each of them even, and with the wonderful 20-20 hindsight realising we should have started at the lowest side. With a sudden stroke of genius I realised we could use 2 tomettes rather than building them up which would be much more secure and reduce sinking. We had to go back to re-do a couple but definitely worth the effort in my mind. I mean we have got pretty good at this now.

Almost done so I’m on dinner, well cooking pizza. So, do we fill it up and ask our new friends that we hardly know to drop round while we are away or do take it all apart?! Sod it, I’m not taking the damned thing apart any more, they only live like 5 mins away, and I am sure we can bribe them with Rose. With this however I have made a rod for my own back. To prevent it blowing away over night we need to start filling it. That means I need to get in to remove the wrinkles from the bottom.

We got the hose hooked up through the kitchen window again down to the basement, and then I asked why we wouldn’t be pumping it from the vats first. I’d far rather be in the slightly warmer water at 10:30 at night in the pitch black. One of the connections then burst in the basement adding 2inches of new water to it and undoing all the recent dehumidification. Matt wasn’t pleased.

Guided by Matt, I did my best. I just hope that this damned thing is level.

But, that’s not us done for this evening. We had a response from the Marie about our planning permission for the ‘proper’ pool and we need a plan that shows the level and fall of the ground. We can’t do this in the daytime as we need the laser level (that we can only see in the dark). You’d be surprised how much the ground here slopes, so was Matt.

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[19 June 2021]

Sunday

Before we can do that however we need to finish refilling the pool. It’s been going through the night so not much more to go. It’s fantastic though, the hard work that we put in yesterday looks as though it has paid off and it seems to be level this time. What a relief, I don’t think I could bear it if it wasn’t.

Job done and we’re off down to Lou Casteau for lunch with Jonny and Cressida, yippie! It was a lovely lunch, filled with fun and laughter, and followed by a quick glass of wine back at the house. They seemed pretty impressed, which is quite a relief too as we’re relying on Jonny to look after it while we are away.

Once they left we took the opportunity to take a dip in the pool. It was blissful and so happy with it now.

Seems I promised to make dinner so it’s a quick carbonara. I may have somewhat forgotten how to do it but it looks ok, we’ll see if we get food poisoning tomorrow.

[20 June 2021]