Getting Back to Normal

As I have now got  my arse in to gear and reopened the Journal I suppose I had better recount Sunday's activities ...

... The morning started like most Sundays with 30% dropping TP off at the Rugby Club whilst I walked T&M around the Three Miler. The walk takes about an hour which gave me sufficient time to grab a quick cup of coffee and a change of clothes before we returned to the club for the eleven o'clock kick off. After last week's fantastic game we were hoping for great things but unfortunately this was not to be.

After the match Sunday panned out pretty much as expected. It was busier than I had hoped but a lot better than the previous weekend which I had spent chained to the laptop. After lunch we popped over to see Bad Man Senior and Step Mum Sue. This was one of those multipurpose visits that included the giving of Birthday presents to TP, the drinking of tea and exchange of gossip and the need to provide some muscle as BMS had decided that one of his garden ornaments needed to be moved for aesthetic purposes. Unfortunately the ornament was not a lightweight Gnome but a many hundred pound staddle stone.* TP and I managed to heft the monster to it’s new home and it now sits in clear view of the house.

Once back home TP and I scurried off to the garage as he needed some assistance with his Resistant Materials Project. He plans to make an electric Ukulele and the body will be made from a piece of salvaged teak. This was way over size so we spent a good while running it through the Planer Thicknesser to get to the right thickness.

Having completed that I then spent less time that I really should have filling in a template describing my achievements over the past twelve months. This is the nightmare that is Dante’s staff appraisal process and I did a quick and dirty job working on the assumption that if they have promoted me they must think that my performance over the past year must have been reasonably up to scratch.

I was then finally able to wander in to the Dining Room and potter. I spent a happy couple of hours finishing off the skirting boards and fixing the upper frame of the cupboard in to place. Next on the list is to finish off the trim around the hearth stone and complete the heatproof concrete infill behind the fire back.

It was lovely to have my life back after a hectic few weeks. I know that the next two or three will also be busy but nothing like the past fortnight.

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* a large, two piece stone “mushroom”. Many years ago sever of these would have been used as a base for hay ricks. They lift the rick off the ground away form the damp and the mushroom shape of the staddle stone prevents rats and mice form gaining access to the rick.