Tuesday 18th August - no visible progress

 Yesterday was mostly another 'setting out' day before work can begin on the roof. That dratted soil pipe continues to be a problem. The hup! (that's the name of the building system) installers would normally cut through the top section, which is just the vent part, in order to 'grind into the bricks behind it' and 'drop a collar over it', and then rejoin the bits. Sounds straightforward, except 

it turns out that although the rest of the pipe is iron, that top bit is asbestos cement. Which no-one wants to cut through, obviously. 

The architect came over in the afternoon, and deep discussions took place with gesticulating and head-scratching. The current plan is to find someone to loosen up where the pipe joins the iron bit, and loosen up where it goes through the roof, push the pipe up, do the grinding, place the collar, and seal it all in place as though nothing had happened. 

I'm praying as from now!

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While the architect hunts up suitable contractors today,  the hup! installers are doing other bits and pieces, keeping busy.

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How long does it take to form a habit? I don't think I've ever managed it. For example, I'm pretty good at the morning and evening meds, but the lunchtime ones can be a bit random. And my daily page-a-day write up has kept going, with only a couple of blank pages per year, since about 2014, I think. Although I'm not entirely sure what the point of it is... I think it's because at one time I genuinely couldn't remember what I'd done a couple of days ago. At least I could now supply an alibi for almost every day... but would it be true? 

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All the above is a preamble to a picture journal plan described by Adam Ming (on substack, a sort of cross between blogs and Facebook but without adverts).

You set a timer for 10 minutes and draw a frame, divided into four boxes, one for yesterday, one for what's coming up today, one for the future, and one for something you are thankful for. That leaves you with about three minutes to fill each box with a simple picture and a few words... like a short cartoon strip in format.

Yesterday's 

And today's 

You don't have time to overthink!

It reminds me of the tiny postage sized pictures I made in April, May June of lockdown 2020,

(I did complete the month!)

and also when I did the sketch-a-day diary some years later.

If I  keep this 10 minute journal going for a week I'll be happy enough 🙂