Monday

After a weekend of not being allowed to get a lie in I could really do with staying in bed till midday. Sadly not an option as I have to work today. Matt was off very early to Lidl to pick up some new lights.

Quite a bit of prep to do for work and it’s invoicing day so mostly busy doing boring stuff. We did however take the opportunity to fill up a couple more rubble bags. These things are super heavy and they are only about half full. Takes both of us just to carry them out of the kitchen and into the car.

We’d planned to drop it down to the dechetterie, however luck (and checking the opening days) was a bit beyond us. Turns out it is closed Sun-Mon. Will have to try again tomorrow. Quick calculation (from Peter) and have worked out that there is about 7.5tonnes of concrete in the floor to be removed. At somewhere between 50-75kg per bag that’s 100-150 bags and means we’re going to have a lot of trips to the dechetterie. Hopefully we can manage to get a couple of trips in a week (you’re only meant to go once) or this is going to literally take months.

[1 March 2021]

Tuesday

Work obviously, but since it’s the second day of the week, let’s have a second go at the dechetterie drop off. Thankfully this one was a success, although sadly forgot to get a pic of the full car for you.

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It was incredibly quick, probably under 30mins. At least it was for us, there was quite a queue for the afternoon session and lots of whistles being blown at people, where to move, general shouting in French; I’m glad Matt wasn’t alone for this one. Didn’t help that we had a Gendarme car behind us!

With a bit more done I decided to listen to Seb Ourselin’s AI in healthcare pitch while tidying up a bit. It really doesn’t take a lot of cement to get these bags to the ‘just about moveable’ level – cement is heavy.

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Matt managed to squeeze in a little more mess making… Guess who was left clearing it up though.

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Well. That’s a pretty big hole in the floor!

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I’m certainly more keen however to move the concrete down 4 stairs than I am up about 9! Despite protestations to the contrary I’d set up a tarp in the basement to catch the fall through. Matt did a good job of pulling up the ‘bricks’ but there was still plenty. It was however much easier to clear the mess by just funnelling it into the bag rather than scrabbling around in that bloody sink so I don’t regret a thing. I think I got a bit dusty today though!

Blast, I’d forgotten to put the sheets in the wash. However, I was clearly going to need to do a bit more tidying up before I had any chance of them being any cleaner when they came out. That said, with the amount of rubble Matt has left from his last hole I’m working on the bare minimum. It’s amazing your view of clean can change when you live and work in a building site 24-7… Looks good to me!

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Dinner (and showers) later, Matt is back to work again so decide to play a bit of mini golf, I’m definitely getting better. Once I convince him to finish work I realise I forgot to transfer the sheets to the dryer. Seems we’re going to need some other fresh sheets and I am going to have to wait up for them to be finished – it would help if I could understand what the bloody thing said but they are not dry after the second go – and yes, I did remember to empty the water holder thing this time.

Timely reminder however that they are turning the water off tomorrow so best double check that Matt filled the drinks thingy and kettle for the morning. Yep, seems the earlier reminder helped. I’ve put some of the very full kettle into a pot (with a lid – well side plate), it’s not going to boil when it’s full to the brim. At least now we know we have unnecessary potential and can provide all the neighbours with a cup of tea if required!

After the third running it seems that the washing is finally dry so I can now get to bed! Night all xx

[2 March 2021]