Monday

Worky, worky.

[16 May 2022]

Tuesday

Been rather busy with work again today and yesterday, seems I may have forgotten to water the coriander and Matt found a pretty cool bug. He’s also been cleaning the seats in the car which is nice.

Matt was then off upstairs to sort out the wiring for the ensuite lights.

Not much I could do to help with this one after passing him various things so I was off downstairs to make dinner.

[17 May 2022]

Wednesday

Weather was lovely today and I had lunch on the veranda. We then had sausages kiwi style, i.e. wrapped in a slice of bread for dinner. After work we also took a stroll around the grounds and found the biggest feather I have ever seen in my entire life, it was huge! We suspect that it may be from a buzzard but not entirely sure.

As it was hot, Matt was less keen on doing the insulation, which is obviously required before we can do the plasterboard, so I took over. It wasn’t as easy as I had first thought, as despite having found some offcuts from the old kitchen ceiling, I’d rather forgotten about the hangers holding the beams. Seems that this is going to be a bit more involved than I’d hoped. I still managed to get the first half up before dinner which I thought was a pretty good effort. Meow and I also helped Matt with the measuring of the plasterboard.

After dinner it was back to it. I was already covered in some of the scratchy fibres so may as well do it now and have one shower than do it later and have to have a second. This is all entirely possible now though with the new boiler!

Time for a shower and to throw my clothes straight into the wash, I’m itching all over. Now a brief time to relax before getting to bed.

[18 May 2022]

Thursday

The fibre guy is coming today. He got lost however so had a number of calls with him to describe where the house was and which one it was. He finally arrived however and we showed him where everything was. We had a good chat and turns out that he had some English, in fact he’s going to London in a couple of weeks so I provided various pointers about travelling to/from the airport etc. It didn’t take him too long but did require a bit of ladder holding, I’m obviously a pro at this. I needed to get back to work though as I had an important meeting to chair so left Matt to manage the rest. Quick swim after work and to get a few laps in.

Having been showing the guy around the basement and where the connections needed to be made it really struck me how filthy the stairs and new space was that had been left following the removal of the old boiler. Time for a good clean [trust me the pictures don’t do it justice, it’s much better than it was], followed by a shower. Unfortunately however while drying between my toes I found something that shouldn’t be there, a tick – blergh! Thankfully for me Matt is a pro at tick removal. It was tiny and hard to get at but I wriggle a lot less than the cat does.

[19 May 2022]

Friday

It’s the start of Les Bengalis doggy daycare. Jonny is heading back to the UK to spend the weekend with Cress (who appears to have left forever) so we’ve got the boys. I didn’t however realise that we were also playing plant hospital, but the sorry state that they were dropped off in required a bit more than just water. Matt’s throwing arm is ready to take on the ever inexhaustible Woody, while after a few more work emails I’m ready to don the surgical [gardening] gloves to tackle the plants. They’re clearly pot bound and suffering. Apparently now so are my flip-flops. Lesson #1 of doggy daycare, don’t leave shoes on the ground, they are fair game – I should have remembered this from having labs growing up so entirely my fault, and at least he chose the uncomfortable ones.

With the plants attended to and watered it was time for me to join the doggy fun, well that and a few more work emails and calls of course. Work apparently doesn’t finish at 5pm in the UK even on a Friday. Thankfully the last call was Peter however who understood that I should go and play with dogs after a rather fraught day of work.

It was a bit grey out but hadn’t stopped Woody and he was very happy with his new ball. His giving back skills still require some work but Basil was basically my shadow. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom alone. Apparently we also need to work on our seating arrangements. The dogs don’t appear to appreciate that Matt also needs somewhere to sit and that the two beds on the floor were for the dogs.

Outside to give the dogs a final comfort break and Matt noticed a small leak coming from under the door in Shed 2 (the new boiler room). Point 1, the installer was very skinny and only left enough space for him (or me) to shimmy through to get to the back of the balloon (tank?), which appears to have a small leak. I did my best to follow Matt’s directions but this was less easy when he couldn’t see anything and I had no idea what he was talking about. Doesn’t seem to be making much difference so will need to send an email to the installers.

Back in the house and time for some relaxation time. Apparently I am very attractive to dogs, Basil wanted to join the party but was less than impressed by the idea of falling through if the poof moved.

Life is different with dogs, for one they take up a lot more room in the bed by the time I went to bed Matt had claimed his spot and the dogs were quicker than I was. This might be a long weekend.

[20 May 2022]

Saturday

Woody got up to follow Matt but Basil was quite happy with my more restful approach to mornings. I can’t say it was ideal but at least I could claim to be dog sitting one of them while he had the other. We’re going to have to see if we can get them to sleep in the hallway tonight or I won’t get a lot of sleep.

Most of the day was spent playing with the dogs and attempting, rather unsuccessfully, to convince Woody to drink the fresh water we’d provided rather than what he considered to be the biggest drinking bowl he’d ever seen – our saltwater pool. I think he’s already drunk about an inch off it and it won’t do him a lot of good. Of course as a good dog sitter I looked up all the signs of it potentially making him ill and we were on the look out for them as well as signs of distress but he seemed fine, the idiot.

Yummy, mozzarella, feta and tomatoes as a late lunch. I needed to get a few things done in the garden, Matt looked for the lily beetle while I went to finish up another bed, and found a small hornets nest while I was at it. It wasn’t easy what with two furry shaddows. I did managed to get in there and even to see the cat, however it turns out that she doesn’t understand that while she can get through the fence to the veg garden the dogs can’t. She was perfectly safe when I was feeding her but apparently I’m not to be trusted, and since the dogs followed me she soon left.

At least for a time we managed to tire them out. I say them, Basil spent half the day inside on our bed as it was too hot for most of the day.

Dinner time and it’s ribs for us. Good thing that I checked with the boss as we weren’t sure if the dogs could have the bones or not, of course we all know that chicken is a no-no but pork? Apparently not. The dogs had their own dinner anyway and have been getting the 5* treatment Chez Chaney-Camp, ice in their water to cool it down and covers over their food when they’re away and playing to reduce flies. What more could they want?!

Time to try to relax – we should definitely move into the salon next time they are over as this is ridiculous – and then off to bed. Apparently despite putting their beds outside the room this seemed like an invitation. They even beat Matt. Oh well, it’s not for long but it is definitely bedtime.

[21 May 2022]