Tag Archives: davenport avenue

Sunday 17th April 2016 – DESPITE BEING SO TIRED …

… yesterday, I was awake by 03:00 this morning. And by 06:00 I had given up all hope of going back to sleep and I was up and about.

I’d even had time during the night to go on a little ramble too. And, in what I hope isn’t anything like a premonition, I had died. And yet there I – or, tather, my phantom – was, sitting on the floor with Liz, my friend who passed onwards in 2009, in Davenport Avenue sorting through piles of paperwork just as Nerina and I used to do on the floor in Gainsborough Road sorting out the paperwork for our taxi business back in the 1980s. I remember too, thinking about two lock-up garages that I rented in Crewe, one of them packed full of car body panels for Ford Cortinas and the other one that actually did have a Ford Cortina in it as well as a few other bits and pieces.

The funny thing though was, once I had woken up, I spent a good few minutes racking my brains thinking about where these garages might be and where I had put the keys before realising that it was all just a dream. It’s not the first time (and not by a long chalk either) that I’ve had difficulty at first separating these little nocturnal rambles from reality. And I’m not convinced at all as to whether it’s the dreams that are so realistic or whether it’s my real life that’s so surreal.

After breakfast, I nipped out across the road to the banketbakkerij for my Sunday baguette and my raisin buns. And the queue at the baker’s was right down the street. A very populated place, this is. The buns were just as delicious as they were last Sunday too, I have to say.

I had a quiet morning too, not being up to all that much. I just drifted around in cyberspace and watched a couple of old football matches that I discovered. That took me up until lunchtime and I do have to say that the olives that I bought yesterday are delicious.

I didn’t realise until about 19:00 this evening that I hadn’t crashed out this afternoon. That’s despite being awake at 03:00 this morning. That doesn’t sound right to me but there you are. I can’t believe that I’ve managed more than 16 hours (it’s now 21:30) awake. That’s not like me these days.

For tea, I had a vegetarian special pizza because I saw that it came with broccoli, and that is good for me. And on the way back, I passed by a choir practising on the steps of the town hall. That was a pleasant surprise and cheered me up a little.

But now I think that I’ve done enough today. I’m going to go to bed now and hope that I’ll be tired enough to sleep right through until the alarm goes off tomorrow.

Wednesday 11th June 2014 – THIS PLACE REALLY IS THE PITS

inspection pit les guis virlet puy de dome franceAnd it is too. This is the start of the inspection pit just outside here.metal

You can see how it’s being built. There’s the plastic lining and the breeze blocks that will be built up, with the reinforcing metalwork in the corners.

You’ll also notice the sink in the far corner. Anyone who has ever had an inspextion pit will tell you that even in the best circumstances an insection pit will be infiltrated by water and we were forever baling out the pit at Davenport Avenue in Crewe. This way, the water will sink into the sink and I can pump it out with one of those rotary pumps that you fit on an electric drill.

So Terry came round this morning and we went stright off to Montlucon and Brico Depot. A pallet of 70 breeze blocks went into the trailer, along with another 18 breeze blocks with the round corner-holes for fitting the reinforcing metalwork. 88 breeze blocks – cost €105. And isn’t that an improvement on €2.14 plus VAT of 20% per block?

Back here we unloaded the trailer. And I’ll tell you this – the Kubota is a marvellous tool for this. No messing about – we left the van and trailer at the top of the hill and ran a shuttle with the Kubota and Sankey trailer. Three trips and we had everything exactly where we wanted it. That’s better than carrying the blocks one at a time down the hill. It’s a superb little thing.

We lined the pit with the plastic and fitted the sink, and then Terry mixed the concrete while I was down in the pit tamping down the concrete and fitting the breeze blocks. And once more, the solar panels powered the little concrete mixer to perfection. It’s amazing what I can do here with my solar panels.

That took us up to 18:00 and so Terry went home and I tidied up, and emptied the beihstuhl. We’ll put some more concrete in tomorrow and then build up the walls.

However, that depends on the weather. We’re having a thunderstorm right now.