Tuesday 25th? August - the days go by in a blur...

I'm enjoying the 10 minute visual journals, and they do help me keep track;

My finger seems to be healing up nicely so far. We didn't have the pork belly in the end, it's gone into the freezer. I'm trying to avoid messy activities like cooking to keep my plaster dry, so we are eating rather a lot of 'pierce and ping' meals. I heard, on Antiques Road Trip, I think, that the Welsh for microwave cookers is 'poppty-ping'. I would so love that to be true!

 

Now, how did we get to to point in the pre-zoom-church-service chat where one man got up and reappeared with a much loved Muffin-the-Mule puppet? It was... 

talking about the importance of staying cheerful, especially when you are dependant upon others,

 and me saying I learned that from reading 'What Katy Did' and also watching my mother after her stroke,

 and we talked about the old-fashioned books we read as children, and one lady said there were no books in her house apart from the Bible when she was a child,

 and I asked her if she had toys - oh yes, she said, and then Muffin-the-Mule joined and presumably stayed for the service as it was time to begin... I do love this congregation!

Monday morning was manic; FOUR plumbers, armed for bear, as they say, and the architect erupted on site at 8am. With that, two set to work on the soil pipe problem, which turned out to be magically simple. With the grouting loosened, the pipe just pushed up through a sleeve in the roof.

The other two worked on moving the outside tap (which was now inside the extension). This was a trickier business involving the dishwasher, washing machine, cupboard under the sink, drilling, soldering... but they were all gone leaving nothing but the memory of a whirlwind and a large number of footprints on the kitchen floor. Plus a nice new shiny brass tap on the side wall of the house.

The hup! installers missed all the fun of the fair as they weren't due until 10am! 'Didn't think you would have got ir done so quickly, ' was their surprised comment. 

This is today. Yesterday I phoned for the missing receipts, and I DID get those pesky claims submitted! Hooray!

I was on a roll and gathered all the information for my self-assessment tax return, but decided to stop while I was still feeling positive. Oh, what a frabjous feeling, filing away the dental forms!

Work continues on the extension, not a lot to see as it is all fiddly setting out stuff, and fixing a waterproof membrane to the outside and so on.

Current 'fingers crossed' moment is that Josh-the-plumber' can slot the soil pipe back in place soon, maybe 8am tomorrow? Who knows!

Sunday 23rd August

 From our zoom church service today;

Saturday 22nd August - a very peculiar time

 Today's ten minute journal page

The peculiar time started quite late yesterday evening with a power cut at around quarter to ten. The sitting room was plunged not only into darkness, but more alarmingly, into silence after the oxygen concentrator emitted a couple of shrill alarms. I sat very still, taking slow, deep breathes, while BB used the light of his Kindle (!) which he had been reading, to make his way to the hall. We have an emergency light plugged in the hall, (and upstairs on the landing) so it was easy enough to fetch an oxygen cylinder for me to use instead of the concentrator. 

Power was restored very quickly, but the episode made us realise we need to think about having emergency lights in the living area, kitchen and bedroom. Suppose there's a power cut when you are pouring boiling water from a kettle?

We always have at least one, and usually two cylinders in the hall so I wouldn't have had far to go if I needed to sort myself out. But it was a good opportunity to revisit the situation. 

That madness of the day continued. I managed to load the crackpot for step 1 of making BBQ pork belly. That's child's play; just put the strips in the pit and cook on high for three to three and a half hours. 

However I was convinced it was Sunday. Why? I can only think that it was because having no workmen on site on Friday made it feel like a Saturday... anyway, I logged onto the zoom for the church service only to discover that I couldn't see anyone else... panic station as I'm down for a reading... So I whatsapped my cousin, who speedily replied 'Saturday?'. Duh.

Feeling a bit of a fool I thought I'd do something useful like the washing up, and promptly cut a finger quite deeply on our sharpest kitchen knife. Not quite like the nursery rhyme; it was 'this little finger on my left'. Ow!

After running it under the cold tap I applied pressure for 10 minutes, and BB stuck a plaster on, which seems to have lasted ok. Still, it's got me out of the washing up and various other jobs. BB finished off the BBQ pork;

remove the slices and pour away the liquid in the pot (into a bowl, NOT down the drain!). 

make a sauce from 1-2 tablespoons each of dark soy sauce, tomato ketchup, I tablespoon runny honey (I  often substitute sweet chilli dipping sauce) a clove of garlic and about the same amount of fresh ginger, both grated (I shake in garlic granules and dried ginger) and a pinch of five-spice powder all stirred together.  Put the pork belly strips back in the crock pot, pour over and mix in the sauce, and cook for another hour to hour and a half on high.

This is for two pieces of pork; adjust for larger quantities. 

That's the day so far... it's half past eight now and it's been very calm...

I've finished a sock, apart from the heel!

I started with the toe, and I've used 'Judy's super stretchy bind-off' for the cuff. YouTube is your friend here if you want to try it. After several disastrous bind-offs on previous socks, which were all too tight, I've discovered this works every time and it's not too much hassle. 

I've even started the next sock. Again,  it's a special cast on method 'Judy's closed toe cast on' which I knew would take me several attempts (YouTube again) but is well worth persevering with. 

My step count for today reflects the amount of time I've been sitting quietly so as not to disturb the plaster on my finger!

Friday 21st August

 This morning's ten minute journal:

.....

The solid roof panels for the extension are now in place. The plan is to add the glass ones next week, and I think delivery of the doors and windows will happen too. Possibly even fitting them.

Wiring the electric mechanism for opening the roof panels needs to happen at some point, but I guess that's further down the line once the electrician has installed everything.  I'm a bit hazy about that.

Here's how it looks standing in one corner,  looking towards the new kitchen door. There will be two glazed panels in the gap in the roof, but they have left a big space so that someone can get to the pesky pipe (starting at 7:45 on Monday!).

And here's how it looks from the other corner.  I'm standing between the current kitchen door and the new kitchen door, looking towards the new patio.

There's a delay getting the big triangular piece of glass for the end wall.

The office; "I'm sorry, it's delayed until September. "

Me; "Do you mean the 1st or the 30th or somewhere in-between?"

The answer was inconclusive...

No hup! fitters today, (they did let me know) but it will be everyone cracking on (not literally, it is glass) next week.

...

Because of a regular zoom call on Thursdays between 8-9:30 pm, we've a whole load of great TV to look forward to over the weekend; Celebrity Masterchef, Ludwig and Professor T. After weeks of disappointing scheduling I rather pleased! I still haven't started watching Ann Droid yet, but it is getting excellent reviews so it's on my list.

Thursday 20th August - Rain!

Yesterday's 10-minute journal;

My collaboration squares went off to Ang on Tuesday, and arrived with her yesterday.  Hurrah for 2nd class post! 

At long last I hemmed my 'heatwave' trousers. I don't know why I coloured them green as they are a very pale duck egg blue. The fabric is like a thin, fine linen mix, so hemming had to be tiny wee stitches, just picking up a couple of threads on the outside. I think Esmé from Sewing Bee might have passed them!

I teased the builders saying they needed to hurry along with the roof because the forecast was for rain..

And it was true; yesterday we had Proper Rain for about fifteen-twenty minutes! It was drizzling most of the morning, but the hup! installers kept on doing whatever it was they were doing, but midmorning they retreated to their van with a mug of tea each for an unscheduled break. Not enough roof up yet to protect them. Luckily the rain didn't last and they emerged to carry on.

There's still nothing spectacular to see, but looking more closely I noticed beams mounted on the outside wall for the sloping roof panels to key into prepared sockets. It's all very precise measure four times and fix once stuff; the installers are very meticulous wh8ch gives me confidence.

...

Ang's squares arrived lunchtime yesterday in a pretty candy striped box (from the Snag tights company). The squares, for there were two of them! were wrapped in a sweet little handkerchief held together with a silver starburst pin.

A kit for foundation patchwork, the handkerchief and pin, and two squares.  I like the lattice pattern very much, and the variegated colours contrast well with the pink border. The multi-coloured square is a 'mindful' square are you have to pay attention to do the two different kinds of decrease in every other row... needs a bit more concentration. I shall add them to my growing stash while I continue to think what to make them all into...

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!

....

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

....

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? 

....

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 🙂