Monday 16th February 2015 – I HAD A LATE START …

… this morning. I was up early enough, but you know how it is. I had a 15 minute free space before I needed to start work so I made a start on something else – a quick 5-minute job – and it wasn’t until 11:20 that I had finished it.

I’d been on my travels through the night too. Wandering around Glasgow with a small portable gas-welding kit doing odd jobs.

I’ve made great progress today anyway. I caught up with my late start by having a very short lunch break and also working on until 18:45, but I did spend half an hour chatting to Cecile on the phone and also to someone who wants to come and visit her house.

What I have accomplished is to cut, shape and fit the central shelf of the wardrobe and then screw it into position. That involved two planks of pine shelving that I had to go and search out from downstairs, and also a great deal of tidying up in the bedroom.

Having done that, I could fit the flooring into the wardrobe. That again involved searching out a couple more planks from downstairs, cutting, shaping and fitting them into position. And the good news from this point of view was that I could cut out the good bits of an old split plank that was doing no good anywhere and fit these good bits into place.

Final job was to assemble all of the drawers.

Tomorrow, I’ll be building the cupboard to fit the drawers and then fit that into the recess in the wardrobe.

It’s not half looking good in the bedroom now.

Sunday 15th February 2015 – ONE THING THAT I LIKE …

… about Sundays is being able to lie in bed. And when I have nice clean bedding to lie in, it’s even better. I must admit that I’m looking forward to having a nice bedroom and nice brand new bedding to lie in too, and that day is coming closer and closer too.

So despite being awake at 09:15, it was 10:30 when I crawled out of bed, and I do have to say that that was probably the hardest work that I have done today. I did manage to bring up a small load of wood and a couple of kettles of water too, but I can’t think of anything else.

With the rain that we were having (12mm today) I didn’t plan on going out anywhere anyay.

I did have a look in the bedroom though, and the crepi that I had put on the OSB wall was drying nicely and had changed xolour to match the crepi that I had put on first from the almost-empty tub. I’m pleased about that.

Funnily enough, the part that is taking the longest to dry is the part that is on the piece of OSB that I had brought in from outside.

And I did say that, after fitting this piece, I found a complete OSB board that I had forgotten about – and in the house too.

I’ve been making the most of my day off working with this 3D program and I’ve overcome another major issue that was holding me back, as well as finding a “hidden menu” – something that completely baffles me. It doesn’t baffle me that there’s a hidden menu – I can in fact see the prupose of it – but why it should be set as the default and needs to be switched off, rather than the items in the hidden menu being shown in the default mode and “hidden” being an option. It doesn’t make sense to me.

But I have had a tragedy here today. I accidentally closed my browser window (with 22 tabs open) leaving a pop-up window open. Consequently when I reopened the browser (configured to show the last open configuration) it was the pop-up window that came up and I’ve lost my 22 open tabs.

That’s a tragedy and no mistake.

-1

Saturday 14th February 2014 – WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME …

… that I had a severe attack of cramp during the night?

It’s a good while ago, and so I was quite surprised to have one last night. Severe was not the word, and to make matters worse, there’s one position – my “recovery position” – where I can take the strain and ease the cramp a little, and I had an attack of cramp in that position too as soon as I eased myself into it.

It was absolute agony for a good 15 minutes before it eased off.

What was sad about this is that I was in the middle of a big discussion with Sir Winston Churchill and we were inspecting a couple of VW Beetles, having to be very careful about opening the bonnet of one of them in case the two kittens underneath escaped.

It was cold, wet and miserable this morning, raining in torrents. But I still set off for Montlucon and the shops. The only exciting items purchased were the 2nd and 3rd series of the Hercule Poirot TV series. Of course, they came from NOZ as you might expect. It seems that they are some kind of weekly or monthly offering in the French press and NOZ gets hold of the unsold copies.

But it’s really quite funny llstening to Poirot in French. 90 is translated into “Quatre-vingts-dix” as you might expect from a French TV station, but as everyone knows, Poirot is actually a Belgian and so he would never say “Quatre-vingts-dix” but “nonante”. In fact, all of the slang is translated into Francais de Paris rather than Francais de Bruxelles and it makes a complete nonsene of Poirot’s insistence all throughout the series that he’s Belgian, not French.

Mind you, who am I to complain? Any moral high ground that I might have had went right out of the window when Professor McGonagall said to the students of Hogwarts “I’ll be with you momentarily” in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. I died of shame when I heard that, and it still makes me cringe even now.

At Brico Depot I bought a pile of floorboarding, some more beading, the missing hinge (about which much has been written) and all of the hardware for the wardrobe doors. I’m set up for next week now (I hope).

On the way back, I stopped off at Ice Station Zeb … errr … the swimming baths at Commentry. It was freezing although the water in the smaller pool where there’s the bubbling spa was warmish. I had a shower (which was the whole point of going) and tonight I’m going to treat myself to clean bedding.

Friday 13th February 2015 – THIS SUMMER DIDN’T LAST VERY LONG

It clouded over at about 18:00 this evening and by 20:00 it was p155ing down outside. So that’s that then.

But I have made enough progress today, so that it doesn’t matter too much.

First job was to sand off the second layer of filler on the wall. That didn’t take too long to do, and it doesn’t look too bad, although I would rather have been able to take off all of the plasterboard and start again. Anyay, it’s ready to paper and paint, whenever I’m going to be doing that – which won’t be for a while yet.

Next job was to move everything around in the bedroom so that the working space is next to where the wardrobe is. And hen I’d done that, I emptied the wardrobe. That was a horrible job and I hated every moment of it. I’ve found quite a bit of stuff that I had “lost”, as well as another hundredeight of screws and nails, but none of that compensates for the rubbish that I pulled out of the wardrobe area. There was even stuff in that corner that came from off the old roof when we ripped that out in 2009.

I can see a great big issue now in that I don’t have enough space left to store all of the stuff that I’ll be taking out of the bedroom when I need to empty it

There was still an hour left before lunch so I made a start on crepi-ing the OSB alls of the wardrobe. I worked up a good rhythm in there and I as doing so well that I ran a good half-hour past my normal knocking-off time and I didn’t care either.

Afterlunch I cracked on with the crepi-ing and at 18:30 (another long day) I’d finished it all.

You can’t really see what it looks like because it as dark by the time I took the photo, but it’s come out quite nicely and I’m impressed. On Monday I can even fit the shelving, which will be progress indeed.

I had a nice hot wash in the water out of the home-made 12-volt immersion heater and then another load of the potato and lentil curry.

Now I’m all set up for the weekend – I’m off to Montlucon tomorrow.

-2

Thursday 12th February 2015 – I HAD A LATE START …

… today. I had about 10 minutes spare before I needed to start work qo I started on something really quick – and it was 11:10 by the time I finished.

But never mind – I still managed to accomplish everything that I had planned for today, and even found time to draw up a list of tasks to do before the bedroom can be called finished. There’s 15 on the list (and I’ve just thought of one more too) but I’ve already completed one of them so it’s not too bad.

First thing today was to sand off all of the remaining filler in the joints of the plasterboard. And now, of course, I look like a snowman … "snowPERSON" – ed. Once that had been done, I could put the second coat of paint on the landing wall. I still don’t like the colour but it went on good and thick and at 20:00 it was still wet.It’s going to take a while today.

This afternoon I had to fetch in a pile of wood as I’ve run out, and then I set to work on the second layer of filler on the plasterboard joints on the wall in the bedroom. It ddin’t take too much either – I must be getting good at this. Finally, I took off all of the masking on the landing and now I can get into the cupboard there and start putting stuff away.

I didn’t know what to make for tea tonight but just messing around aimlessly with a few bits and pieces here and rhere and I ended up with another mega-meal – this time of potato and lentil. It was nice, but it would have been even nicer had I had some onions handy, and there’s enough for four meals. So that’s problem solved until next week.

Tomorrow, I’ll be sanding down the second lot of filler, but then nothing’s going to happen to that for a while so I can leave it at that. I’ll also be emptying the wardrobe and painting that with crepi, ready to start fitting the shelves. I’m intrigued to see how far I can reach tomorrow.

-2

Wednesday 11th February 2015 – THIS MUST BE SOMETHING OF A RECORD

Today, I had a massive 169 amp-hours of excess solar energy and the water temperature in the home-made 12-volt immersion heater that I use as a dump load went off the scale (ie more than 70°C). There has never been that much surplus solar energy in the month of February – in fact we would not find too many days in July and August where we would have more than that.

That gives you some idea of what today wad like. The temperature outside reached 15.1°C and this was the first day for I don’t know how long when the temperature in my attic rose during the day rather than fell.

The increase in temperature prompted me into action and first job that I tackled was to paint the landing. But that wasn’t how it panned out, as I dropped my pliers into the 8 litres of white paint. They will be nice and pretty when I finally get down to the bottom of the tub and can fish them out. But that’s not going to be for a while yet.

So here we are. You can’t really see things very well in the landing, but here’s the first coat of yellow paint on the wall. This is basically 8 litres of white emulsion and a tube of yellow paint pigment.

It’s not brilliant, but it will look much better tomorrow after I have done the second coat. And I don’t really like the colour – it’s come out much darker than I was expecting and much darker than what I wanted.

But never mind. it’s on and it’s staying on.

After lunch, I started on the second piece of OSB for the end wall of the wardrobe. That eventually went into place with a little bit of manoeuvring and fine adjustment, and it won’t be coming out again.

It’s a different colour than the rest, due to the fact that I didn’t have enough OSB in the house and had to go outside and scrounge a piece that I had been using as part of the false floor in Caliburn. But as it’s being coated in crepi, it won’t make much of a difference.

This afternoon, after a few other bits and pieces that I had to do, I made use of the surplus solar energy and started to sand down the plasterboard. That took ages and I’ve only done about half of it, but the sandpaper on the sander split itself, at exactly 18:05, and I took that as being the signal to knock off for the day.

And those falafel balls and oven chips for tea were delicious again.

-2

Tuesday 10th February 2015 – IN WHICH OUR HERO MAKES GREAT STRIDES

The first lot of great strides took me up to Virlet and the mairie to be censored, seeing as how it’s census time again and I missed both visits of the census team. And it’s clear that the people at the mairie read this rubbish because the first question that I was asked was ” did I manage okay seeing as how I was snowed in for 10 days at home?” and the second topic of discussion was about the postie and an explanation as to why she couldn’t make it here. All totally unprompted.

Not only that, I was taken to see the new snow-clearing apparatus and I was asked for my advice about some technical aspects. Well, well, well. Whatever next?

Second lot of great strides were down to the bottom of the garden and the composting bin, where I empted out the beichstuhl and refilled it. Such delightful jobs that I have to do around here. Still, it’s all grist to the mill, and compost for the garden too.

Once those delights were sorted out, I attacked the bedroom and gave it a thorough cleaning – or, at least, the best cleaning that I can do seeing as how there are still four sheets of plasterboard in the middle of the floor. And as usual, running my big magnetic dish through the pile of sawdust and plaster dust and ordinary dust, I salvage about a hundredweight of screws and nails that have been dropped over the passage of time.

With that out of the way, I can press on and fill all of the joins in the plasterboard. And how I wish that I have the time and the money (and the inclination) to rip off the wall everything that I did a few years ago in here and start again.

All of that work so far took until lunchtime and it really is quite impressive, even though I say it myself (apart from the rubbish plasterbaording of course). I could be quite happy living here.

Although it was still very cold today, we had another really bright alpine day. Not good enough for varnishing or painting, but good enough to sort out the circular saw and cut the first of the two end-pieces for the remaining unfinished wall of the wardrobe. To cut it, shape it and fit it, it took all afternoon firstly because it needed to be an exact fit – 1mm out and it’s no good at all, and secondly because trying to fit it on my own was almost impossible.

It had to be the upper piece that needed doing. That needs to be fitted first and difficult as it might be with nothing underneath it holding it in position, fitting it in second is impossible. In the end I had a crowbar wedged underneath it at the bottom and an endstop nailed to the beam above, and I was gently levering it into position between the uprights with a big wood chisel.

I had it in position and screwed in nicely after about an hour and a half, only to find out that it had slipped down the crowbar and was about 15mm out at the top. Taking it out was a barrel of laughs too, as was putting it back in again in the correct position but finally, at about 18:30 it was in exactly where it ought to be, and all screwed in position.

A wash in the beautiful warm water in the home-made 12-volt immersion heater (we had 104 amp-hours of surplus electrical energy today and we would have had more had I not used the circular saw) and up here for a nice warm fire and oven chips with peas, carrots and falafel balls.

What I’ll do tomorrow depends on the weather and the sun. We are promised a warm day and if that is indeed so, I’ll be painting the landing. Otherwise, I’ll be sanding down the filler.

But starting work on the wardrobe already. Isn’t this progress?

-1

Monday 9th February 2015 – THIS IS IMPRESSIVE!

Yes, I’ve had 105 amp-hours of excess solar energy today. The temperature of the water in the home-made 12-volt immersion heater that I use as a dump load rose from 0°C (yes, it was really cold in the living room) to 41°C and on knocking off this evening I was able to wash my hands in nice warm water.

That tells you the kind of day it was today. Clear blue skies for most of the day with just a few clouds scudding by round about lunchtime. And I was able to extract Caliburn out from under hsi snowdrift and go into Pionsat and the Intermarché to stock up on the grub.

Mind you, that was rather problematical because, on arriving at the supermarket at 14:00 I discovered that it was exceptionally closed until 16:00 due to a bereavement, so I had to go back a second time. Anyway, I’m now good for another week if we are snowed in again.*

I’ve also been able to fill up all of the water containers, seeing as how for a brief period this afternoon everything unfroze itself.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I started off this morning by tidying out the bedroom. I’ve emptied tons of stuff and taken it downstairs and in doing so, I’ve …
1) cluttered up downstairs completely
2) made a few exciting discoveries of things that I had lost an subsequently forgotten.

But here’s an interesting thing. I took the gas heater downstairs and in order to move it easier, I took out the gas bottle. I had a look on the date on it (I date the gas bottles when I fit them so that I know how long they last) and this one was dated 10th November 2010, and it’s almost full. That means that it’s over 4 years since I’ve paid for any heating here and at €30 every three weeks for 18 weeks or so per year, that’s a saving of 88 weeks divided by 3 and multiplied by €30, that’s about €900.

The woodstove on the other hand cost me €279 and of course my wood is free, and there’s also a saving on gas for cooking in the winter too. So you can see that this woodstove really is the best thing since sliced bread.

So having spent all morning emptying out the bedroom, I can walk all the way around and reach all of the walls ready to start the filling. And after lunch and shopping, I made a start. But I stopped pretty quickly too because, looking at some of the plasterboarding that I had done back in 2010, I ripped a huge pile out and redid it, with proper bracing. It’s amazing how much I’ve learnt and how far I’ve come on since I started on this.

Consequently, I didn’t get much of the filling done, and I’m hoping for a better day tomorrow.

However, that’s going to be interrupted too as I’ve been summoned to the Mairie tomorrow morning. I told you that I missed the census the other week while I was on my one and only day out, and they came round today to catch me – the first day for well over a week that I’ve been able to leave the house.

Typical, isn’t it?

-2

Sunday 8th February 2015 – I WAS RIGHT ABOUT LAST NIGHT

Coldest night of the year so far with the temperature dropping to minus 8°C outside. Not as cold as it can be of course (regular readers of this rubbish will recall out minus 16°C a few years ago) but still cold enough to drop the temperature in the living room downstairs to minus 1°C. No wonder it was only 12°C in here when I woke up.

Temperatures actually stuggled into the positive figures in early afternoon, but it didn’t stay like that for long and when I did the stats it was minus 3°C outside. Winter is still here.

as for everythign else, it was just like Sunday – mainly because it is Sunday. I’ve done absolutely nothing at all – not even made any tea due to the fact that I had a veery late lunch. And that’s all there is for today.

Tomorrow I’m back at work, and having finished the window I cans tart on emptying the bedroom and filling in the joins in the plasterboard. A few days of that and I can start on the wardrobe.

-2

Saturday 7th February 2015 – IT’S BEEN JUST LIKE SUNDAY HERE …

… in the sense that I’ve done badger all today.

I was up early this morning though, but that was due to a need to visit the beichstuhl rather than a desire to be up and about, but once I’m up, I’m up, and that was that.

I’ve been outside twice today – once to fetch a pile of wood because I’ve had the fire on this afternoon a little, and once to take the stats as usual. And that’s my lot.

It’s hardly surprising though, because it’s been the coldest day of the winter today. The temperature hovered around minus 3°C and minus 4°C all day, 0.4°C in the living room and 3.5°C in the bedroom where I’m working. That’s why I’m grateful to be installed in my well-insulated attic with my excellent little woodstove. It’s 23°C in here right now. Best decision I ever made to transform the attic inton a little studio while I rebuild the house, closely followed by the decision to buy this stove.

But it’s not 23°C outside tonight. When I checked the stats at 20:30 this evening the temperature was dropping rapidly and we are on course to have the coldest night of the year.

-3

Friday 6th February 2015 – NOW HERE’S YET ANOTHER THING;

Yes, I curtailed my lunch break today.

And there was a good reason to. It was cold today in my attic and I didn’t feel much like hanging around. I reckoned that I may as well go back to work early and then knock off early, and come up here and light a fire.

But it didn’t quite work out like that.

This morning it was comparatively warm up here compared to what it was on the groud floor – 12.8°C here compared to a mere 0.4°C downstairs. And with 3°C in the bedroom, at least the decorators’ door that I fitted yesterday is doing something. Especially when outside, we’d had heavy snow during the night and it was minus 4°C, and that was how it stayed for the day.

I cracked on with the window surround this morning and I made good progress. One side was done and half of the other was done by lunchtime. and I was impressed by that.

But with the curtailed lunch break I attacked the rest of it and despite a few distractions, such as scavenging around for offcuts of the type that I’m using. And even though it got colder and colder, and now I know why old-time carpenters preferred tools with wooden handles after handling metal tools all day in 4°C, I put in a good shift. And even though I was intending to knock off early, it was 18.30 when I knocked off.

Mind you, it was worth it, because as you can see, the window is now finished – except for the varnishing and the beading, but that’s not going to be done for quite a while. It’s too cold for varnishing and I don’t have any of the correct-sized beading.

But I am impressed with this. It’s certainly better than the first effort, but then fitting the wooden sill instead if tiling it gave it a much better start.

Up here it was 8.9°C – the lowest that it’s been for a couple of years while I’ve actually been here, but the temperature outside is plummeting alarmingly. A nice roaring fire and a plate of vegan sausages and mash however quickly put some heart in me.

And you can tell who is a Government employee and who is self-employed. I’ve seen neither hide nor hair of the postie for a week, yet the boulangère struggled down here, half a mile here and half a mile back through the snow on foot to bring me the weekend’s bread. Hats off to Sophie!

-3

Thursday 5th February 2015 – 12.8°C IN HERE THIS MORNING.

Hardly surprising, seeing as how downstairs it was all of 1.4°C. And (even at 10:00) it was minus 4.5°C outside.

Consequently, I have this morning fitted a decorator’s door to the head of the stairs on the landing.

These are great things, thrown together out of a bit of old plastic sheet and scrap offcuts of wood. Their main purpose is to stop the passage of dust into areas that are being painted, but they also work for keeping in the het and keeping out the cold. IN fact, you can feel the difference either side of the door so it’s clearly working. And as the temperature dropped downstairs, on the first floor we remained at a rather comfortable, if not balmy, 4.5°C

So having done that, and done some more tidying up, what was next?

Ahhh yes. We now have a windowsill in the bedroom.

This is from an offcut of pine board and normally it would be having about 3 coats of varnish on it. But that’s a waste of time with the temperature in the bedroom at 4.5°C.

The board took ages to fit as it needed to be carefully cut and shaped, and it’s come out quite well. But one unforeseen problem was that the window wouldn’t open with the sill in position. But that power belt sander that I bought the other day is superb, even if it did break the belt. Ith having something like some sun this afternoon I could use it. It did a really good job of sanding down where necessary and now there’s about 3mm of clearance under the window.

After lunch I tracked down some thin wood offcuts such as scrap tongue and groowing and nailed them to the wall inside the window and then started to clad the inside of the window with tongue and grooving like I did to the window at the head of the stairs. I have some of the t&g left over from when I did the bedroom ceiling and together with the offcuts from other projects, I should have enough to do a decent job there

I’ll post a pic when I’m finished with that.

I knocked off at 18:30 and it was just 9.3°C in here. And it’s snowing heavily outside too. If that’s not enough, the 10-day long-range weather forecast is promising not much let-up in the weather. It’s a good job that I don’t really need anything from the shops, as I won’t be able to go to fetch it.

-2

Wednesday 4th February 2015 – LEAVING THE FIRE …

… simmering away through the night did some good. It was 13.4°C in here this morning. Mind you, in the house downstairs it was an impressive 1.9°C. The weather really has gone cold here right now and it’s staying cold too. It had snowed during the night too.

First job was to make a start on the plasterboard walling.

There was quite a bit of studdding that needed to be fitted – I hadn’t done that correctly at all – and then I cut the second piece of plasterboard (the first piece was fitted yesterday). That needed a hole cutting in it for the light switch. That’s much better than trying to cut four out, isn’t it?

You’ll notice the two length of wood screwed into the top of the first piece. Having had years of experience of fitting plasterboard single-handed, those lengths of wood make rails. You slide the plasterbord over the top and down the back, clamp it to an upright (ou can see the clamp at the top of the image) and then once you hve trimmed the board (GRRRRR!) it’s ready to be screwed into position.

Getting to that position took me until lunchtime at 14:00 but I wasn’t going to stop. I carried on fitting the rest of the plasterboard and that took me until 14:40.

After lunch, in view of the fact that there was a little sun, I vacuumed up the landing and then masked off everywhere ready for painting. No point in doing that though in 1.9°C.

To finish off tonight, I mixed up a bowl of filler and put it on the wall. That took me until 18:40 and then I knocked off and fled into my room. I was absolutely freezing. It’s no fun working in 1.9°C – and that’s indoors too.

-2

Tuesday 3rd February 2015 – IT’S BEEN ONE OF THOSE DAYS …

… when very little seemed to go right. After all of my exertions today until 18:30 this evening, I’ve put one (out of three) sheets of plasterboard on the wall, and that is that.

I started off by some more tidying up in the bedroom so that there was a place to work on the plasterboard, and then I cut the first sheet.

This needed four holes to be cut in for the pattresses, and then a frantic search for the pattresses and sockets. And despite a decent search, I can’t find the telephone socket that I bought the other day.

I then had to lengthen a couple of electric cables and that wasn’t easy either, and when I pulled out a redundant length of wire, I noticed that the insulation was shredded. A further search revealed that I’d put a plasterboard screw from the bathroom through into the conduit for the cables, so I had to remmove that and replace the wires.

But the screw was behind the batten for the suspended ceiling in the bathroom so I had to take the batten down. But the screw head was worn so I had to drill it out. And so the battery went flat in the drill.

And so it went on, and you get the picture.

Eventually, all of the wire was the correct length, in the correct place, properly routed and joined, and so I could offer up the plasterboard to the wall. It needed trimming off and so I had to take it all down again to trim it. And in puttilg it back, I smashed a corner of the plasterboard that I had spent all morning shaping.

But then again, that’s what filler is for and so it’s gone on the wall anyway. You’ve no idea how difficult to manoeuvre a sheet of plasterboard, thread four lots of cable through four lots of holes and then screw it to the wall all on your own.

But it’s done anyway, and if I’m lucky, I can fit the other two pieces tomorrow and – shock horror – maybe even paint the walls on the landing. But I’m not holding my breath.

It was freezing here this morning – 13.3°C. But that’s ot surprising seeing as how it was minus 6°C outside. And freezing where I was trying to work. That didn’t ease my humour any.

So tonight, I’ve banked up the fire and we’ll see what happens.

-1

Monday 2nd February 2015 – WELL, THE SNOW …

… looked quite pretty this morning. Especially when the sun came out and we had a little bit of blue sky to play with. It made me quite glad that the first job that I did this morning was to clear the snow off the solar panels on the roof.

That’s quite an exciting task – I stand on a tall step stool and reach out of the roof light and with a long handled window cleaner blade I can reach all of the panels and push the snow over the back of the house.

That’s not a new idea either. I can remember, when I was very young, watching a television film where some Indians were firing flaming arrows into the thatched roof of a pioneer house, and the pioneer wad having to reach out of the roof and try to dislodge the arrows before the fire took hold. And I wish I knew which film it was for it made quite an impression on me.

The little bit of sun encouraged me to use the electric sander to sand off the filler that I had done on Saturday afternoon. And when I had done that, the next task was to make some room in the bedroom where I could set up the paste table. As you are well aware, that’s not the work of five minutes to tidy up wherever I’ve been.

Now that the paste table was in place, I could make a start on wallpapering the landing. And much to my very great surprise, by lunchtime I’d done all of that. This was quite astonishing.

After lunch, I did some more tidying up and I’ve filled three bin bags with rubbish out of the bedroom (and there’s plenty more to come). That led to making a start on putting the battens onto the stud wall so that I can put the plasterboard on there. I also spent a pleasant 15 minutes in the lean-to looking for the drywall pattresses that I need for the electricity.

This evening, I’ve made yet another pile of vegan aubergine and kidney bean whatsits. There’s enough for four days in the batch that I’ve made and now of course I have the shelves outside where I can leave the stuff in the cold.

In other news, I’ve had some very sad news this evening. Another one of my friends from University passed away at the weekend. She was a lovely girl, very nice, very intense and very good company but that was on a good day, and as her perceived problems mounted up, her good days became fewer and fewer.

About 12 months or so ago, she walked out of her life and a short while later, turned up in her native Portugal. Presumably, with the intention of finding comfort and consolation in the surroundings of her childhood. However it looks very much as if she was unable to find whatever it was that she was seeking and this led to the tragic events of this weekend. I hope that wherever she is, she’s found peace and comfort and is at rest.

-1

EPIC HALL

The Poisoned Pen (or Poisoned Chalice, more like) – or my relentless struggle against reality