Another Lifetime to go

7th November 2018

Today is the start of flooring, so with a crowbar in hand I tore up the first two rows of the old boards. I wanted to extend the new floor into the top landing, but the joists were going in the opposite direction. Not only that, but they were not level with the joists in the bedroom, this meant a lot of new joists, and general re-levelling to match the rest.

There is a lot of new pipe work to consider, and it scares the shit out of me that I might hit one fixing the boards down.

I had a lunch date with my old school friend Rob Derrick. We had decided to go to an Indian restaurant near the Abby. I could taste the Dosa Masala, it was one of the things I had missed (along with beans on toast) living in America.

As we walked towards the door, the anticipation was overpowering, but the place was closed.

It was Diwali, doh! I hadn’t remembered that, so as the rain beat down, we made the decision to go to The Green Rocket for a wonderful vegetarian meal.

Rob has always got me into trouble, if it hasn’t been getting lost in a cave network, it has involve falling out of a boat at the weir at Pultney Bridge. My younger days were dominated by crazy antics that have nearly got us both killed, it was a wonder we survived.

When I have told these stories to Kelli it is known as the “Rob Derrick adventures”, and it seems that we were like two peas in a pod, I can see that now.

We still have the childlike attitude, albeit with less agility, but we have a good laugh.

6th November 2018

Nicola turned up at 9.00 with her paint tray and roller in hand. She works at an amazing pace, and whilst I was off dumping rubbish and getting more paint, she had the first coat done. I think she runs on Duracell batteries, by 3.00 it was all finished leaving me with the ceiling to do.

It was the mid-term elections in the US and tension was running high with the pundits making all kinds of predictions.

Kelli and Greer eagerly cast their vote, so America is safe.

5th November 2018

Arrived at the cottage bright and early just in case someone might turn up.

I was expecting Wayne who was due to replace the old woodwork on the outside of the porch, but his record of timekeeping leaves a lot to be desired. I had to chase him to replace the guttering at the front of the house, so my expectations of him turning up was pretty low.

I had a message from Andy giving me a time when he would turn up, so I knew he would be late.

I had my list of things to do and materials I had to purchase, so as soon as Andy had done his bit to get the hot water and central heating working, I set off for Wickes.

The plan this week was to finish the small bedroom. I had started the painting, but I needed to tidy up the plastering, then I could lay the new floorboards.

I worked outside until it got dark cutting up the door liner for the utility space. That was fitted and ready for painting tomorrow.

I set out the floorboards to get acclimated, and ticked off my successes on my job list.

I had an email from Wayne apologising for not turning up, he put it down to thinking it was December. I am used to the smell of bull, and it is amazing the anything happens on time. I mentioned it to my sister who recently had some work done, and her tradesmen were there at 7.00 every morning, and worked a full day.

There is this casual approach to work, but when you are paying a day rate, I want my pint of blood. I now understand why the supervisors I saw in India carried sticks to entice their workers to, work.

Now where to get some sticks!

4th November 2018

Drove down to Damian’s to swap the cars over. I had asked him to make sure the battery was okay, after a couple of months standing idle, who knows what could happen?

Damian is not good at communication, emails are unanswered for days, therefore I was hoping everything was good.

Fortunately the Shogun started immediately, so the boy had come good.

Kelli had taken all her Christmas things into the store, and rearranged, even repainted some drawer fronts as she went.

Then something happened, the drill she was using to insert a screw slipped, and caught her finger, giving her a nasty cut.

I felt bad, that should have been me, I should have cut my finger, because I wouldn’t have made half the fuss that she did ( because I’m a man!!) I would have wrapped an old rag round the wound and carried on.

Kelli’s pain threshold is not very high, and I tease her about it regularly, but she reminds me that she gave birth to two babies the size of pumpkins, and that usually shuts me up. Gee, I bet people heard her swearing in Grand Rapids.

3rd November 2018

Drove up to the cottage to look over what had been done whilst I was away. According to my sister there had been a lot of flies buzzing around that she had dealt with, so I was eager to see if any remained.

I did find about ten flies congregating around the roof lights, so quickly got rid of those little buggers.

Both the bedrooms had been plastered but not as well as I had liked (one of the disadvantages of not being on site I guess). There was not a particularly good finishing point to the floor for the size of skirting I have been using. Also there was no hot water. So I was straight on the phone to Andy who promised to get things sorted out on Monday.

Whilst I was there I decided to put some paint on the walls. The back bedroom does not get a lot of sun in the afternoon, so trying to apply a light colour on the wall on top of the priming coat was really difficult to see. I plugged in my work light, and that didn’t work either. I was starting to think things were conspiring against me, so I washed out the rollers and brushes and called it a day.

Although it was not very productive, it reoriented me. It was still a mess, the dust still falls on everything, the upstairs have been revitalised and it will look great.

2nd November Friday

Woke up from a deep sleep, the sun shone through the window, a hard frost on the lawn, and silence, yep back in Sleepy Barrington.

I wanted a short rest before I make the final thrust and finish the cottage, and turn it into a home again.

I drove into ilminster to get some paint mixed and a few supplies. I enjoy the experience of watching the paint man work. He is an expert in his field, and could easily go on Mastermind with paint mixing as his specialised subject.

He bombards you with questions, “Matt, satin or eggshell, kitchen, or bathroom, one litre, or two and a half” once all that is answered the process begins. After being shaken not stirred, I leave with my cans, double sealed, ( ” Well better be safe than sorry”)

It was a little strange driving again after two months, but it was great to hear the Jag roar again.

My mind hadn’t caught up with the hundreds thought threads that is stored in my small grey sponge, when that gets untangled, I will have restless nights until everything is done.

1st November 2018

So I arrived at Heathrow just after 7.00am although the scheduled time was 8.40am. I know it is downhill, but it must have been really steep to gain an hour and forty minutes. Now the answer might have been the medical emergency in the first class section. A person possibly choked on a quail egg or something. So once we landed everyone had to wait in their seats until the paramedics arrived. Now you could say that as we were early, a short wait would not be a inconvenience, but I say crap! I have just been stuck in a metal tube for seven hours, with a bunch of strangers, and an incontinent Asian, I just want to get out and breath all those fresh aviation fumes, and walk along miles and miles of corridors. So I want to get off the plane please.

Now a further inconvenience was the person was laying on the floor IN MY AISLE, thus blocking it, the only way out was to cross over the middle section of seats, and hope that those on that aisle would let me in. That was a lot to hope for, especially Americans. So I did what all English people normally do not do, and barge in, although I did smile and say thank you.

Once through passport control and baggage collection I was free and ready to go home.

Unfortunately none of my two sons could collect me, so for the first time I went by coach. This was the first time I had used this mode of transport. Making my way to the bus station was a wonderful experience, and one I would love to try again (in a hundred years)

The ticket I had purchased gave me a four hour stop over. Why did I chose that time? Well normally the plane is always late, there are queues at passport control, and my suitcase is the last one off, so just to be on the safe side that was the ticket I selected.

I took my a seat in the waiting area and watched the world (and departure board) slowly change.

The only entertainment on offer was watching an old guy trying to fix the automatic sliding doors. The problem was they had jammed open, and this chap was trying to get them to close. He would make an adjustment and the door would start to close, then someone would walk up to it, and it would open. This happened about five times before he got staff members to hold people back, and even this didn’t work, some little old lady would find a gap and squeeze through. Eventually he found more staff and formed a human wall both sides. This time the door only got about three-quarters closed then stopped. So out came the hammer and screwdriver again to make more adjustments. By this time some of the staff got bored, or had other things to do, so the whole sequence would start again. I should have suggested they used the sick person from the plane to lay across the floor and stop people using the door, simple.

31st October 2018

The day of my trip back to the UK has arrived.

As usual Kelli is in mourning, dressed in black. She hates it when I leave, and I don’t like to see her so upset.

It is something that she has never got used too even thought the break is short.

A quick drive around the block to say goodbye then off to Grand Rapids, stopping off to pick up Cameron, who pulled the short straw to accompany Kelli back from the airport.

The flight was as smooth as a millpond. The aircraft flew over Grand Haven, and the lake shimmered in the afternoon sun.

I had over four hours to kill at O’hare which is a boring place to be, everywhere you looked there was food and drink. Once I decided to have a beer and it cost over ten dollars!! and it was in a bloody plastic cup. So I say f*** you Samuel Adams.

I walked around Barbara’s Bookstore looking for something interesting to read. There were plenty about Trump, but I don’t need to buy a book to tell me what a prat he is, his own mouth does that. There are the usual stock of get rich quick books often the advice is to write a book on getting rich quick.

I exit that place empty handed, the only thing vaguely amusing was a girl serving in Starbucks wearing white rabbit ears, I don’t know if she meant to do that, or she came straight from a Playboy club.

Finding my seat on the big plane is always nerve racking. If I get there and the other seats are filled, there is the instant mental adjustment of the size and shape of the occupants. If I am there first I am scrutinising each passenger as they walk down the aisle, secretly hoping the seats next to me remain empty. It is usually my luck to get Mr and Mrs Extra large squeezing in the seats, testing the strength of the mounting points to destruction. Fortunately on this trip I had the row to myself , hurray! That is until an old Indian man, with a weak bladder moved into my window seat, boo!

Maybe he should have spent the flight in the lavatory.

30th October 2018

I went out to lunch with Dave, this was his opportunity to get another free meal out of me (the other being the wedding) we went to Bob Evans, otherwise known as heaven’s waiting room. As I may have said before it reminds me of the film Cocoon, where all the staff are over eighty. This is our opportunity to catch up with his news. He had just returned from Indiana where he transported five washing machines to the Amish in return for a nice fat cheque. I was therefore thinking he would pick up the bill for lunch, but you know how that went.

Afterwards it was back to Hudsonville to replace the chair that was sold earlier. That was a welcomed sale right at the end of the month.

Kelli plans to go back at the weekend to set up the Christmas stuff, whilst I’ll be getting ready for a month of house decorating.

Kelli painted the radio cabinet as that will be heading out the door soon.

29th October 2018

There was still a lot of work to do on the radio cabinet, I had given it a rough coat of paint mostly to show up the flaws and blemishes. Out came the “Bondo” again. All the internal pieces had been stained and finished, so it was just the back panel to cut.

There are the regular people that I see most days I’m in the garage, they say hi and I wave. The regular cars that passed, I know them by their sound. There is a throaty V8 truck that passes, that is my clock, he throbs by at just after five thirty every week day. I see the dog walkers, the old jogger, and the big guy who walks past after visiting the corner store every afternoon. He has had a number of heart related problems, so the fact that he is able to remain mobile is testament to medical science, however I always have a set of jump leads handy.

Greer had some good news to share, she had been offered a position of assistant manager at the local corner shop and deli. Does this mean cheap food in the future? ah, nope, but it is good for her confidence, if not our tummies. This meant a celebration down at New Holland, and a chance for me to order the black bean burger yet again. I have been tempted to change my name to Black Bean Pete, or Black Bean Butt, I will answer to both.