Tag Archives: krys

Sunday 20th December 2009 – Wahey!!!!

Yes, the Stairway to Heaven is finished!

stairway to heaven stairs attic les guis virlet puy de dome franceWell, it isn’t actually because with not going to Montlucon this weekend I didn’t buy the wood that I need to make the treads. So I’m using scraps of wood right now and I’ll replace the treads in due course. Krys kindly sent me a message – she’d seen the scraps of wood that I’m using for treads and she was worried that they weren’t strong enough and concerned for my safety in case I fell through them. I thought that that was quite sweet. Most readers of this blog would pay good money to watch me crash through a tread and hurtle 6 metres to my doom.

I dunno why it is but this morning with no alarm clock (it’s Sunday) I managed to wake up earlier than I normally do when I want to have an early start. And dramatically, while I was drinking my coffee and watching the thermometer I noticed the temperature rise by about 1.5 degrees. It’s stayed a little warmer all day, and it’s now above freezing for the first time for a week. Which is just as well. I’ve been wandering around in about 10 different layers of clothes – woolly jumpers, fleeces, body warmers and the like. I feel like a cross between Nanook of the North and Eskimo Nell.

And that reminds me – I did hear of a story about the Brighton “Gay Pride” rally one Easter a few years ago, when it actually snowed!. Lee “I’m a Potty-mouth” Prostitute was taking part in the parade dressed in his fairy boots and about 10 jumpers to keep out the cold. He bumped into Rick Hollyoaks, and they discussed Potty-mouth’s attire.
“I bet you feel like Nanook of the North” said Hollyoaks.
“Well as a matter of fact I do” replied Potty-mouth. “But I’ve no idea how I’m going to find him in this crowd!”

heavy snow 2009 les guis virlet puy de dome franceSo I dug Caliburn out of a snowdrift and drove him up and down the lane to free off the road. And then the snow hurtled down again. Liz rang up and said that they were having a tempest out there and she couldn’t get to this carol-singing, and I didn’t think I could either. It was diabolical. You can get an idea of what the weather was like.

And that was how come I finished the Stairway to Heaven. It was dark when it was all complete so I’ll post a pic in due course.

It’s still warming up and I’ve already taken some layers off. I might even turn off the fire if it carries on.

Tomorrow I’ll be starting the stairs on the ground floor. This is looking quite optimistic.

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Wednesday 4th November 2009 – Well, folks – here it is!

attic finishedAnd about time too, I hear you say. One attic duly completed (more or less).

If you look very closely you can see that all of the skirting board is fitted, even in the little cupboard. And the room was emptied and brushed out by 18:15 too.

Tomorrow is going to be cleaning and tidying, and then moving in. And I’m going to have 10 days off and put my feet up to relax.

It goes without saying that a great big thanks is due to Terry, who came along, got me motivated and got me started on the roof back in July.

A big thanks too goes to Liz, who kept me going with supplies of vegan chocolate cake, to Dave who came to join in for a couple of days, and also to Rhys and Krys who kept me at it with loads of virtual cyber-support.

attic no roof no floorAnd we really put our backs into it too. It’s very hard to imagine that it was only on the 18th of July that the attic looked like this.

So here’s a little quiz to keep you all going until tomorrow.

I said that tomorrow I’m moving into the attic once I’ve cleaned it. The bed-settee, the desk and the coffee table are already up there. What you have to do is to guess which domestic item is going to be the first to be moved up there from anywhere else. An easy one if you know me – not so easy if you don’t.

As for this evening, we had an exciting jam session in a living room in Montaigut. I took the acoustic bass as I don’t have an amp and speaker for the Gibson but I needn’t have bothered – the living room was like something out of a who stage set, complete with soundproof room for the drums. Michael had only ever played once before with other people – I haven’t played with anyone else for about 30 years, but the drummer would have been out of my league even back in those days. His mane won’t mean anything to you but he was formerly the drummer in Gong – Daevid Allen and Pierre Malherbe’s group from the 1970s. Strangely enough, he’s interested in getting together again so when Michael comes back from the UK I’m going to teach him the basics of 12-bar blues and we’ll take it from there.

Meantime I need to talk to Trixi about some singing lessons. Last time I had to sing in a rock band Sue Willett gave me some lessons and some tips – but I’ve forgotten those.

What a day!

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Monday 26th October 2009 – I didn’t do an awful lot today.

In fact, it was a day of interruptions.

Starting as we mean to go on, I wasn’t upstairs 10 minutes before the phone rang. The man from Nazar …. errr… DHL rang to seek directions to chez moi. I carried on with tidying up last night’s wiring efforts and Terry rang, asking if he could borrow my compressor.

Then Terry came round – and he helped me finish the wiring. I was struggling to get the 2x10mm cables for the heater element through the conduit – not something it’s easy to do yourself, so while Terry started it off I went to look for my patent cable dragger. And by the time I came back with it, Terry had threaded it through on his own. It pays to have an expert around the place.
In fact, I had a friend who was acknowledged as an expert by everyone else.
But in that case, it was spelt ex-spurt and ex is a has-been and spurt is a drip under pressure.

After that the man from DHL turned up with a little package for me, and then it was lunchtime.

Once lunch was over I played the usual game of “hunt the keys for Caliburn” and when I eventually found them I drove Caliburn round the back here and loaded him full of scaffolding to take round to Terry tomorrow – all the time half-expected to be confronted by The Ghost Of Farmer Parrett and his pitchfork again.

attic concrete base woodstove tile brick edge
In the attic I did manage to do some work today. All of the chimney is now connected up, sealed and clamped together, and I’ve also done something to the concrete base.

If you follow the comments to the various entries (they are often the most exciting part) you’ll know that Krys and I have been discussing the edging to the concrete. I wanted to put a raised edge around it although Krys thinks (and rightly so) that it will be difficult to keep clean.

I’m still worried about flying embers though, but there’s no point in soliciting advice if you don’t intend to take any notice, so what I did was to put a raised edge around the front and most of the sides, and leave the back open so I can brush out around there.

And what did the man from DHL want? Well, he brought me my new lens that I talked about the other day. And that was quick delivery – I wish Amazon would be this quick from the States. And €36 customs and charges – that’s an enormous rip-off if you ask me.

I’m disappointed with the lens though. It’s very small and you would hardly notice it. Freud had a thing or two to say about camera lenses, something along the lines of them being substitutes for part of the anatomy in the same way that guns and sports cars might be. And I was hoping for a whopper. The filter size is 49mm, which I don’t have, so that means a 20-quid order to the 7-Day Shop.

The lens is a manual focus (not a problem because with the footy, the focus is always “full on”) and that reminds me of a story I heard about the two blondes on the beach, being approached by the beach photographer.
“Keep still” said one. “He’s going to focus!“
“What? Both of us?“

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