Monday and Tuesday

Working. Another short project seems to have popped its head up so just busy working.

[21-22 June 2021]

Wednesday

After working too many evenings and weekends I gave myself the day off. Ok, few emails and bits and pieces in the morning but kept it pretty tight.

Checked the radish today. It seems that despite being ‘very easy to grow’ something went terribly wrong and there are no radishes. Well, b*gger that.

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Matt however has been busy in the kitchen removing the existing temporary lights so that the mason can work without fear of execution – he’s pretty considerate! We now have the main lighting units on a wireless switch so we don’t need wires on the (eventually) exposed stone wall.

Second go at the great key odyssey, this time focusing on the external doors. It seems we found the front door key eventually! It was very exciting. Until Matt explained that we only have the bottom one and we actually secure the door using the one above. We also found a second key for the veranda door that we usually use, and it locks the door. But, you can’t actually take it out of the lock when the door is locked. The back door lock works and we have a key, but there is no receiving piece so it doesn’t do anything at all. We found the key to the lower lock too, however the hinge has dropped so it doesn’t meet the lock on the other side. Basically, looked positive but completely failed.

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Apparently we need to do the gaines for the new security cameras but they need to have two wires in rather than the one that is in there. Now we’ve done something similar with power cables so at least we know what we are doing. First job is to unfurl them, that means me being out in the rain as they are longer than the hallway. Despite a couple of mishaps we managed to get the cables done with ‘relative ease’. Now to get them threaded through down to the basement and up to the ceiling.

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I’m done with this and my friend is coming to pick me up. I have a play date this afternoon 🙂

As you’ve probably noticed, the weather today is pretty rubbish so we’re forced to take sanctuary inside, play with the dogs and drink wine. It’s going to be tough but I think I am up to it. It was good though, we just spent time talking and getting to know each other better. It’s so nice having someone to talk to about everything and nothing. I often get flustered with new people and it’s not something that I am overly comfortable with when it could be quite intense. My new friend Cressida however feels like someone I have known for years, I feel completely comfortable and conversation flows easily covering a vast array of topics. The lovely Jonny however appears to have disappeared but we had the odd check in and seems I haven’t chased him out of the house.

I was going to scoot home but with the weather I thought it best to call the cavalry, and in doing so got us both an invite for dinner. Our first meal as a couple with friends in France, and it’s chilli – yay! Their generosity was boundless and I needed to be taken home, definitely time for an immediate nap on our sofa.

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I woke up having missed whatever it was we were meant to be watching and was time to go to bed. Probably for the best!

[23 June 2021]

Thursday

Busy start to the day with work which is only going to get busier, seems I’ve made promises to help Matt. If, and it’s a big if, the mason is going to ever come over we are going to need to make sure that there are some bags etc to remove the plaster. So time to get the car packed up. You probably can’t tell (partly due to the lack of the photo of the car) but we’ve removed about a ton of rubble from the back door.

Unfortunately, it seems that a number of the older bags have now deteriorated with the weather. Not sure how we are going to manage this but we’d never manage it in one trip anyway.

Next up, moving the water cube from the front lawn. They have about 100L still in them so seems that the best answer is to empty one into the other so that we can at least move one of them. Which means I am on transferring the water while Matt prepares the new base for it in the veg garden.

After clearing the undergrowth in the corner and putting up the blocks we are ready to go. With the aid of the wheelbarrow. But with some minor adjustments it seems to be in place. On reflection however we should probably also get a central support if it is going to have a ton of water in it. That’s going to have to wait till the weekend though but for now it looks good. Stage 1 complete.

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That’s enough for one day. Back to work and dinner.

[24 June 2021]

Friday

Ugh, what a start to the morning. Matt was up super early to mow the paths back into the lawn and the extra bit in front of the garages which has been annoying us recently. Also the hollyhocks are massive.

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Seems I have got all my meetings mixed up. Stupid time zones. Matt has another dentist’s appointment so I have my first call with the Prof Sir in the car on the way.

Apparently we have time to go up to Rural Master on the way back to pick up a few things for the new watering system. We got home a minute before my next rearranged call. So I’m basically on calls for the rest of the morning but Matt is busy doing something useful.

Calls done its time to head down to the bricos in Luchon, by way of Lidl. It seems that they have a good array of garden games in stock – we’ll have all of them! Then down to pick up the plasterboard and studwork.

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That’s quite enough of that, I’m playing the vaccination card for work this afternoon and going to have a dip in the pool instead. Matt seems pretty pleased with his new Minions ring, so I had to give it a go too.

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I also had to get all the games out and have a go at each of them. I won Kubb again, I think that makes me two times commonwealth champion!

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Time to relax and prepare for tomorrow.

[25 June 2021]