Author: peterb51

16th April 2018

What a day it has been, not so much with the cottage but rather the garden. Nicola and Colin came up to tackle the ivy-riddled fence. Years of neglect allowed the ivy to cover the wooden fence totally. It looked like a wall of twisted branches growing over a rotten wooden frame. By the time I got to the cottage they had removed half of the fence, and when I got back after taking plasterboard off-cuts most had been cut down. It was amazing to see the transformation, and that continued when my daughter-in-law, Louise join the trim team.

At the end of the afternoon there were piles of cuttings to go for recycling.

In the cottage the gas supply was being installed, and the water system tested. There were no pools of water, or exasperated plumbers running around, so I guess it was a success.

15th April 2018

A lot of news about the Syrian air attacks on the various cable channels this morning, mmm, another one hundred million dollars worth of cruise missiles fired off. I don’t know how I feel about it? my mind is just numb from everything bombarding me. Chemical weapons are evil, and the countries that develop them must be evil also.

The other thing clogging the channels is the book from James Comey that documents the encounter between him and Trump. That is guaranteed to distract people from the truth.

Of course Trump retaliated with a series of tweets slagging Comey off, this will go on for ages, and the more tweets, the more books will be sold.

14th April 2018

I met up with my old art school friend Rob for lunch in Bath. The Indian restaurant was good and the Masala Dosa was wonderful. Rob has been spiritual from his early twenties, and traveled to India every year to join and involve himself in the teachings of his chosen guru. He had opened my eyes to the scale of his pilgrimage, where numbers of up to a hundred thousand people congregate to listen to the words of one man. Rob carries his beliefs like a cloak, it protects him, and he doesn’t try to indoctrinate those close to him. His view is that all people should wear a cloak to keep their personal soul inside.

The weather was good so we walked by the canal, young children are always fascinated by him thinking him as Father Christmas. He always plays up to them by saying he is on holiday, because it is cold in the North Pole. They soak it up, and he is happy to keep the magic alive. His knowledge of the city is immense, he led me to places I had not been to before, and I have lived in Bath all my life.

Over coffee we talked about our emotional lives, our loves and relationships. I learned that he closed his mind to have any form of female relationships because of his intense jealousy, and obsessive behaviour that he knew he suffered. He decided that for his own sanity he would lead a different life, and find contentment.

13th April 2018

Received a photo of the inside of the cottage showing the progress made this week. I was impressed. Most of the plasterboard is up in the living room, and the floor had been floated. This was a great relief, and there is a strong possibility that the two downstairs rooms will be finished plastered by the end of next week.

To celebrate, I did bugger all, but start planning out the rebuilding of the bathroom.

12th April 2018

I had to call the pension provider to find out why my payment was less than last month. They told me it was due to an emergency tax code that I had been placed on. I had received notification of my new code, but not paid much attention to it before. I noticed that it was set at the forty percent level, so I called them. A pleasant Indian lady listened to my question, clicked around and said that it was based on my HM salary plus my pension, which was an enormous amount that I would have been happy to pay a high rate on. I explained the correct situation, and she adjusted it down to pauper level, and told me I should get an adjustment on my next payment, so I will be down to sucking steam & eating baked beans for the rest of the month.

11th April 2018

I had driven back to Barrington last night, mainly to give the builders time and space to get on and bloody finish the job. That meant I could relax and soothe my weary bones, wrong! I had volunteered to look after my grandson Ethan whilst Damian had a photo shoot with some super car magazine.

This meant an hour and a half drive from Barrington to Blissford to be there by 9.30am.

Ethan was in fine form running round having tantrums when he didn’t get his own way. We walked around the grounds, and then took him to a local county park to release even more energy. He would run into the sand area, and destroy any castles that the other children had built, then run off again. A few minutes later he would go back and wreck some more, but with such an angel face could you be mad at him?

I had such a great time, tantrum and all, I treasure this time because it doesn’t last for ever, and I am lucky to be able to do it, and hand him back at the end of the day.

10th April 2018

This is big grunt day, twenty three sheets of plasterboard and twenty five bags of floor levelling compound was to be delivered today.

Fortunately not at the same time.

Nicola and her fiancé Colin drove up to help me. Colin is between jobs as a contract CAD Engineer, so unfortunately for him, got roped into the job.

The first truck arrived about 11.00am so we set about the task. The standard and insulated board were relatively easy, but the soundproof boards were missed off because they had run out of stock. “The system said we had them in stock” was the response, but they had 15mm, so they sent them.

THEY WERE BITCHING HEAVY, poor Colin was in really bad shape, and on the last board he almost collapsed, I had to take over quickly in case he damaged the corner of the board when he fell. I felt bad walking over him as he lay on the ground gasping, but the show must go on!

I had notification that my flooring levelling stud was on the move from Chippenham, and I was able to track progress. I didn’t realise that there were other stops on route, it was going all over the place, and I was shouting at the phone trying to it it back on track.

Eventually it arrived, so with weary muscles we commenced the shifting of the bags up the slope. Having more bodies made the job easier, and relatively quick.

Once that was done I bid farewell to my two helpers and they set off back home. Poor Colin, I felt bad putting him through that, but praised him for the effort he put in.

I think that plaster board carrying should be included in the Olympics as a team relay, that would sort out the men from the boys, just running round a track is for Jessies!

9th April 2018

Today is Kelli’s birthday, I usually try to be with her on this day, but unfortunately this time I’m sawing wood and trying to get all the carpentry finished downstairs. I’m also disappointed that my card did not arrive on time, which I don’t understand. I can be in the US in about eight hours, but a birthday card takes more than one week. Where is the progress?

Had a great catch up meet with Helen R hearing everything I have missed, since leaving.

It seems that even the power of the brand cannot guarantee success, it’s like everyone is in the same mud pool together fighting for the business.

Maybe there is no golden ticket, anticipating the future of work, and how it will evolve cannot be the vision of old stuffy researchers, but leaving it to the young might mean the office of the future will be a giant bedroom. I kind of like that idea.

8th April 2018

Started on my homework of sanding more of the stair treads. The first batch had turned out really well mainly because I did not do them. My sister, Nicola had finished them to perfection, it is almost a shame to walk on them.

The draw of the countryside is really strong down here. There are wonderful walks to blow away the cobwebs and inspire me to start painting again, although the only thing I’ll be splashing paint on will be ceilings and walls.

7th April 2018

This was all about a calm before the storm.

A quick wiz around Ilminster in the morning, followed by a bit of paperwork filing. There is alway stuff to deal with, this time I had to renew my driving licence. Thank goodness for reminders, I would have continued in complete innocence, but on-line experience was not easy.

I feel intimidated by the process, especially when I get a message that I am already registered, and then have to go back to the start, and begin again. As I waded through the process it told me that it would pull a copy of my photograph from my passport, this is spooky, and proves how integrated everything has got.

Eventually I paid my fee, closed down the site, and got on with my life.

The e-mail I received requested that I cut my existing licence in half and send it back to Swansea, but it wasn’t clear if I had to wait for the new one to arrive, before sending back the old.

Kelli had sent me pictures of a dresser she had delivered to Tin Roof. A great job that she did all without me.