Friday 28th August - new day...

 I think my 10-minute-journal more or less says it all.

I was SO cross and fed-up last night. That cannot, and did, spiral quickly down into a kind of sadness and darkness and despair, to be fought off with every means available. It doesn't do to let such a mood take root; like weeds with tap roots, you have to take action before it gets a hold.

My friends on our zoom homegroup soon lifted me up and back into 'cleaner air'; how on earth do people without family and friends cope?

For me, a homegroup is a group associated with a church. Many do praying and bible study, maybe sing a few worship songs... we four (sometimes five) just natter, unload the week, and then someone will think of a prayer or quotation from scripture as a result of our meandering.

This time, one of us had, during the week, come across 

which couldn't have been more perfect. Nice one. Isaiah!

Thursday 27th August - channelling my inner Pollyanna

 doesn't always work...

Yes, it is possible to make a pot of tea and eat a mini-magnum in a state of suppressed fury and frustration...

My huppers, as I have started calling the hup! installation team, didn't turn up until 11am... they are usually here at 8 so I rang the boss-in-the-office after 9am. This is the second time they have had to call at another site to receive a delivery before they start here. They are going to be late again tomorrow; yesterday they just forgot to tell me... it happens...

But since this phase began on 3rd August, they will have lost about three half days to taking deliveries for other jobs, and four days for other reasons. That's a week in my reckoning, and it is causing issues for the next phase, when the original builders return to do everything else. It's not my hupper's fault, but I'm thinking I might have to say something to the m-i-t-o. I do know he's under pressure to squeeze all the upcoming jobs into his schedule, but I'm now passively-aggressively drinking tea, if such a thing is possible! 

And    B r e a t h e... normal state of cheerfulness will resume as soon as I gave drunk a cup of tea..,

Helped by one of the books I am reading; 'Cheerfulness Breaks In' by Angela Thirkell, set in I suppose 1940, and recommended by several people,  most recently wrinklymartha.

I'm reading a moderately rather very weird book by Wisconsin university professor called Lynda Barry. It is the syllabus she devised for her course on drawing and cartooning.

I'm not a fan of her cartoons, but I'm intruiged by her syllabus for teaching this university course, for undergraduates with any or no drawing skills and experience.

Here's a page;

I so, so wish I'd had the courage to present my teaching plans as stickmen and boxes in a graphic style, instead of spending HOURS AND HOURS typing into a proforma on the laptop, fussing around with font sizes and formatting to make it fit. 

One lesson, early on, is a great leveller for experienced and newbie artists alike; expressively, child-like figures. I just had to try this for myself;

I am now desperate to try the next assignment at the bottom of the page... take some index cards to a suitable venue and do 'quick draw Mcgraw' life sketching. She says use blue colouring pencil and ink over when you get home.

...

Finally, today's 10 minute journal. (Ignore the stuff at the top, that's about something else on the previous page.)

Thank you, elizabethd, for the suggestion of the hebe.

Wednesday 26th August - it might seem a small thing,

 but honestly,  when the man came to pump out the builder's portaloo this morning I was filled with joy...

Coffee features frequently in my ❤️ section.  That second Coffee of the day - autocorrect has for once got it right in spelling it with a Capital C - is one of the beautiful moments of the day. I buy the mini-sized biscuits to try and fool myself into having just one small biscuit. 

At the moment we don't have any barrier at the edgof the patio,  which is quite a height, about 18 8nches, maybe, above the garden. I plan to artfully arrange pots and planters around the edge... now we have reached a time to plan what could go into them.

We were promised rain. It hasn't happened. I think we will have to water the garden...

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!