Cool guy island
Thursday
Working. Then had to go up to some random village that Matt accidentally got a parcel sent to a delivery point in. No idea why or how but we saw some pretty little villages nearby with a nice river and pretty cool little chateau.
[2 September 2021]
Friday
Lots of work to do and Matt appears to have been doing [something] in the kitchen.
Later in the afternoon we needed to head up to Toulouse so figured we’d drop into a few shops to see if we could source the illusive sink for the pink bathroom. [I don’t know why he thinks it’s so illusive, it exists in my head and I know exactly what it looks like. Granted, we didn’t actually find it.] We did see the bath that I want in person and I’m all the more convinced that it is (almost) what I want – I’ll have to settle as the one I really want is £ks and budget won’t stretch that far. Thing is that it is really important that the shape of the sink needs to reflect the shape of the bath or it will look odd, you can’t have a sharply squared sink with this bath.
We found nothing that quite fitted the bill unfortunately.
Time to find some dinner, and I figured it was time for some Chinese/Japanese buffet.
Eventually we were off to the airport to pick up Vicky and Lee followed by the long journey home.
[3 September 2021]
Saturday
Woke up at just the right time. Matt was tinkering in the workshop and needed me to hold some bits and pieces in the right place. With a little adjustment it was looking pretty good and the new paddling pool drinks shelf is done.
Next job is to make the most of the slaves, sorry, visitors. Knowing how heavy the pink bath is we’d best also pull out the blue one right up at the top too. A bit of smashing up later and it’s out.
I think I’d best go tidy up the area that I want it put in as it’s currently blocked with wood while Lee, Vicky and Matt head off to bring the bath down from the top floor. With the first bath down Vicky had enough and decided to help finish the wood piling, not a bad job by my reckoning. Time for us to go up and get the pink one. Thankfully it only had to go down the one flight of stairs as I could swear that it weighed twice as much as the blue one.
[Images from Lee]
Job done and time for a well deserved break – seems the slaves are harder to control than I thought, hopefully the next ones will be more willing and pliable. Every good boy deserves food though (also a mnemonic for the lines on a musical scale btw [EGBDF]). Time for a quick trip to Spain and some tapas.
Storms were strong, I was almost drowned 
Making Cool Guy Island look cool 
Lee managed to jump on first but I invaded very quickly
It’s very hot when we get back so good to play in the pool, while Matt first went diving to look for some of the smaller leaks. Queue the introduction of ‘Cool Guy Island’. There were battles, raging storms, near drowning and all sorts of weather systems that you’d hardly expect in such a short time but (as always) I was constantly on hand to narrate and bring it to life.
Fun done and it was time to prepare for the evening’s festivities. Another quick dip and some super massive paddling pool Olympics – Vicky won the underwater gymnastics competition and was appropriately crowned.
‘Quick’ bit of work because, well, I’ve had a lot of the day off and there’s nobody else to get it over the line. Tonight would be the traditional night of the Man Burn so we had a mini burn, and the opportunity to use our new fire pit – sorry BBQ (fire pits aren’t allowed but we had a sausage on hand at all times so it was definitely a BBQ). There were twinkly lights, a fire, a burning man and general fun and chats which was lovely, so nice to finally have friends over to visit.
I see you! 
[4 September 2021]
Sunday
Lee was up first but apparently it was a day of rest – seriously need to upgrade the slaves, it’s like they think they’re on holiday or something?! Lee was back off to bed in the afternoon so we taught Vicky the joys of spending the day just floating about. The weather on Cool Guy Island is weirdly much calmer when Lee is asleep.
Seemed that Lee’s rest did him good however. Having been crowned Common Wealth Kubb champion I was confident that we could win. However, I suspect that his ‘I’ve seen people playing it on the common’ was a ploy. Vicky played strongly throughout but all was not lost. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Lee seems to have the eye of a hawk and boom, boom, boom, three down; he thinks it’s done and dusted but there’s still the king to go; bosh! The damned King went down and the game was over. Championship lost.
I had to work in the evening.
[5 September 2021]
Monday
Not really sure what happened today. I think everyone had fun, I had to work. No idea what that picture on the bottom right is.
[6 September 2021]
Tuesday
Time to get these slaves back to work before they disappear. It is the hottest day by far, cracking up to around 35 – bet they wish they hadn’t waited so long. Managed to convince them to take up the rollers and get another layer of paint on the kitchen, I had to work however so spent most of my time doing that and occasionally popping in to direct and help with the odd bits and pieces.
With the team sweating buckets they had to be released for lunch (they also had to wait for the paint to dry). I was back to work, it was the first of our SC1 Board Meetings so I couldn’t miss it as had plenty of things to present and answer questions on as to what I’ve been working on over the past few months and to get sign off for the next three month’s work. Even I can’t crack the whip in the house at the same time. Finished about 4 and almost time for them to leave so prepared to take them to the train station. As we took them in to the station to ensure that there were no problems with getting tickets we found that there was no train. It still showed on the app but not at the station, and where you need the train to be is at the station of course. Another hour till the next one – glad we were planning for them to get the ‘early, magical, non-existant train’ so we went to McDonalds. I was starving, I’d realised on the way that I hadn’t eaten yet.
More work to do when I got home and soon time for bed, this ‘annual leave’ stuff is exhausting!
[7 September 2021]
Wednesday
Time to crack on with the housework.
With Matt having had a few days off he’s super keen to crack on and my ‘I have work to do’ is already wearing thin so not going to get away with it for another day. Matt has finished the rest of the fixing up and then we get a couple of coats on the kitchen walls. I assume that everyone keeps these in their fridge right…
Next up, into the garden to check out the crop. Definitely plenty of tomatoes.
Matt is onto the electrics and not much I can do to help (apart from the intermittent passing of things) so managed to sneak off to the laptop and sanctuary of work, at least it keeps me from some of the hard labour, but not ideal to have to do both.
Not sure what she was attacking or licking her lips for but this is the internet and it’s a picture of a cat, so here you go…
[8 September 2021]
Thursday
Time for some more kitchen electrics and to get my new passport photos taken – my passport expires soon so need to apply for a new one now I am back. It’s going to take up to 11 weeks though so need to get it done soon.
With the new cement also laid it was time to get the floors cleaned up ready for the next job. [There is always a next job.] I also managed to put a couple more coats of paint in the larder, doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference sadly.
[9 September 2021]
