I now have all the windows fitted in the attic.

What I spent today doing was installing the two windows that I bought on Saturday. But don’t worry – Auvergnat window-fitters can rest in peace as I shan’t be challenging them with my technical abilities.

The smaller of the two windows was a little too big for its hole and they didn’t have a smaller one, so yours truly got out the cheap electric plane that he had bought ages ago and never used, and put it to work.

That soon sorted out the vertical height adjustment. There was the opposite problem in the horizontal plane (not the one I’d been using to shorten the height) so I attached the window into place by using some small right-angled brackets (I bought a job lot of 100 for a quid ages ago and they are worth their weight in gold) screwed to the side of the frame and screwed to the face of the window opening.

And then I used a couple of pieces of wood as vertical shuttering and filled in the big gaps with a pile of cement. And an impressive job it turned out to be.

The big window was just about the right size horizontally (with judicious use of a sledgehammer and large chisel around the brickwork) and slightly too short in the vertical. So I screwed it to the lintel and fastened it into the sides with half a dozen of those “knock-through” screws and rawlplugs.

I then put some wood on the sill to use as a form of ad-hoc shuttering on the outside of the window and then filled it with cement underneath from the inside.

And that turned out to be a neat job too. It hardly required any facing on the outside.I then pointed it up out and in. And you can tell how much I was enjoying what I was doing by the fact that it was 18:45 when I noticed the time and called it a day.

Tomorrow I’ll be painting the rest of the walls with the white paint I bought on Saturday. I want to get all of the insulation in by Friday.

I came across a cassette by “Men At Work” … "you mean ‘persons exercising traditional labour practices’" – ed … a fine old Australian band better known for “A Land Down Under” but they did much better stuff than that.

Two Hearts is a more ballady-type of album and not a particular favourite of mine, although Nerina liked it. On the other hand, Cargo rocks along quite nicely and is probably the best of their albums.

The best track on Cargo, and the best that Men At Work ever recorded, is a song called “No Restrictions”. It begins with the lyrics “There are no restrictions on what I do or say”, so you can tell that it was written a very long time ago. I wonder what on earth they would sing today.

It totally appalls me to see how many freedoms that westerners had 10 years ago have all been eroded away to nothing by fascist governments labouring under the guise of “Socialists”.

And what is even more appalling is that it only seems to be me and a handful of others who care about it.

But of course, during the decline of the Roman Empire, those in power gave the masses “bread and circuses” to keep them occupied so that they didn’t notice. With the decline of the British Empire, those in power have given the masses 24-hour drinking and 500 channels on the TV to keep them quiet.

And instead of Rollerball to distract them, there’s always West Ham v Millwall.

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