Another Lifetime to go

2nd September 2018

With Colin’s safe driving, they got me to the airport bang on time. I’m not sure what size engine he had in his Toyota Auris, but I have not known anyone to change gears on the motorway.

Once I had checked in and having a coffee, my phone alerted me to a four hour delay to the flight! That sent me into a panic because of my connecting flight, but my phone app showed I could book on to a later flight. So after doing that, and calling Kelli to update he, I noticed the departure board advising travellers to go to the gate. Once there, I was told that there was a maintenance issue with the plane, but that had been resolved with only a thirty minute delay.

The eight hour flight was a continuous back to back film orgy, and the passport control ordeal was painless, and fast. The only noticeable issue was a rather smelly Indian lad who’s scent whiffed around in bursts, disrupting my viewing.

At O’hare I checked that my original booking could be restored, which it was, hurrah!

When I got to Grand Rapids airport Kelli was waiting, and looking sensational, it was good to be home.

1st September 2018

Today is the calm before the storm. I have the luxury of taking my time with packing, although these days I don’t need to take much.

I think Nicola and Colin volunteered too quickly to take me to the airport. I don’t think they realised that leaving at 3.00am is when the zombies of the village roam the streets. We have allowed two and a half hours to get there.

It will be interesting to see if Colin will get above the speed limit even in the early hours, whereas Damian would probably do it in forty-five minutes.

Ilminster is awash with little old ladies on mobility scooters. I was in Tesco, and there was a jam caused by all trying to hit the exit at the same time. All the old dears had the same blank expression on their faces, not exactly a scene from Mad Max, but it was a lot safer walking on the roads.

I washed and parked the car then stretched a cover over it. It was like fitting a condom over a brick, hopefully it will be fully protected.

31st August 2018

I didn’t want to do anything today, this was the wrap-up and leave day. I decided to cut the sorry amount of grass that was not scorched to death. This only took a few minutes, I then painted the roof of the porch, and move boxes out of the main bedroom to give a bit of space for plastering.

I had one last look in the shed for the things I still couldn’t find. I managed to clear a couple of boxes, but the items were still missing.

I hope that when I return in November I will finally find a home for all my crap, or make the charity shop very happy.

I went for lunch in the town, this felt so civilised and proper, where I could sip my coffee and wait for my meal to be served. It is great to be able to walk the short distance, even though he return journey is all uphill.

I did a quick zip around with the vacuum, although dust settles on all the surfaces every day, I don’t like to let it build-up. I guess once the upstairs is plastered, I still will have to put up with it.

Locking the front door and walking down the path, driving to Barrington is something I have done since the beginning of the year, and it has become a regular thing. This time I won’t be back for two months, and I’m looking forward to going back to Holland, and seeing Kelli again.

Kelli moved her spot at Painted Farmgirl to a more predominant position, this was primarily to save on rent, but it did have the advantage of being closer to the front. She was planning to wait until after I got there to move, but decided to do it herself, and was determined to give it a fresh look with some new pieces for the start of the weekend.

30th August 2018

Just for something different, I went down to Ryan and Louise’s house to fit doors to the garden pavilion that I built last year. Just to be clear, my task was to build the main structure, and they would do everything else. I did agree to find some time to help with the doors because they were heavy and therefore difficult to manage, however like Ryan, I was left to my own sweat and muscle strength.

I allowed plenty of time for this, because I am well known for underestimating how long it takes to do stuff. The doors had been acquired second hand, and although they were the same, they were different sizes. Trimming them to match was not difficult, but over the time since the structure was built with was a bit of settlement, so the original frame had gone out of square. I was not going to trim the doors to match the frame, so the only option was to remove it, re-set it, and re-brace it. I was beginning to regret ever starting this job, but I kept going. Eventually I refitted it, packing it to retain the squareness, then the doors fitted perfectly. I was pretty knackered at the end, but a shower, and a change of clothes made me ready…………. to fall asleep in the chair.

29th August 2018

Andy was there bright and early, and I was having high hopes of making some serious progress, however as always something came up at his house, so he rushed off to deal with it, promising to be back as soon as he could. I had lots of things to do, so I just got on with it. By mid afternoon it was obvious that he was not coming back, which was confirmed by a text he sent later. He apologised, and promised that he would complete everything before the end of September. I have gone past anger, I don’t need to get bent out of shape over it, I am just disappointed with him.

Kelli spent the day cleaning up my workspace, ready for me to slip back into.

28th August 2018

Andy did turn up today, and started on the small bedroom ceiling. I was amazed how much plaster he used just for that. I was busy slapping high build plaster in to the big holes left by the old skirting boards in the large bedroom.

In the evening I met up with Phillip, Bob and Helen at the Giggling Squid for a Thai curry. The restaurant is situated in the building that used to be the school dentist.

I didn’t have any fond memories of the place, when I had appointments twice a year, but it has been transformed into a great eating house, and although I didn’t see any actual giggling squids we had a great time together.

Kelli delivered her latest creation to Hudsonville, a cool dresser, let’s see how long this takes until it’s sold?

27th August 2018

No bank holiday for me. I arrived back at the cottage to find lots of flies in the house, it was a bit of a mystery because all the windows were closed, even the skylights.

I preceded to fire up the vacuum cleaner and suck the buggers up, and then went in search of how they got in.

I had a long job list, but not too demanding. The oak bathroom shelf, and the window sill had to be oiled, and fitted. Actually that is exactly what I like myself, but I digress.

Kelli had been busy keeping the business together with some cool things for her booth.

There were a few good sales last week, which also means getting new stuff to replace, well another week and I will be up to my waist in thing to work on.

26th August 2018

My usual day of rest, where I catch up with my bill paying, and general paperwork.

Colin has been planning to build a water feature in the garden, and had created some CAD drawings to show what it could look like.

This made me sad, he spent ages measuring, and trying to model a feature that is not regular shaped, and it never occurred to him to sketch something instead. Are we losing the art of using hand drawings to communicate ideas? I recently came across all my boxes of pencils, crayons, and paints, these were always my tools of imagination.

I found all my mechanical pencils from my drawing board days, the leads hadn’t drawn a line for twenty years but were still at the ready.

Everything is so uniform and soulless, even art is created on computer, there is no texture, no deep drawn brush strokes, you can’t see the passion on the screen.

Sometimes you don’t need a technical specification or CAD drawings for a water feature, you get some rocks and bloody build something.

25th August Saturday

I drove down to Damian’s place to change the car over. When I arrived, his son Ethan was running around. He is the spitting image of his dad, even down to the determination to do things his way. He was busy stuffing a biscuit into his mouth, a bit broke off, heralding the demand for another, which didn’t happen fast enough, so into a hissy fit he went.

He leaves destruction in his wake wherever he goes, his only constant companion is his toy robot, which has a broken arm.

I had my own problems with Damian as a baby, having to spend hours rocking him off to sleep every night, and a little bit of me was thinking, “now you know what it’s like”

That will all change with time, I hope they have the relationship that I have with my boys.

That being said, they constantly take the piss of my lack of interest in electronic gadgets, and I in turn tell them to “get a life” we all seem to get along though.

24th August Friday

I am a “lists” person. I cannot find peace unless it’s written down, and sadly when I tick it off I get a strange delight. Sometimes my finely tuned life hits the buffers when I try to do things “off piste”, and impromptu. This was today. There were some glaringly obvious tasks that had to be done (on the list) and of course I was inspired by some other things that caught my eye. For example, there is a deep internal window at the bottom of the stairs that has become a haven for paint points, and a collection of various types of dust and debris. This has been a constant source of annoyance, but had not yet got on the list, that is until today.

Now that I spend the weekdays at the cottage, I am constantly reminded that it is still work in progress, and I don’t like it. I dream of the time when the tools, the paints and the various fillers are gone, and I can remove the hardboard from the floor, and make it home again.

Whilst I was clearing the sill of the internal window of the dirt and junk, I was also thinking about the floor trim around the fireplace, and somewhere I had some pieces of oak that would do that job. I had to find the wood. Therefore I abandoned the current job, and went in search of the oak strips.

Down to the shed I went, the place that time forgot, the place that if I ventured too far I would find the rake that would smack me in the face. The place where even the rodents would say ” Bollocks to that, I’ll find somewhere else to live”

I found the wood easily, so that became the project of the moment. I laid it out and planned the cuts. It was easy to work on the left hand side of the hearth, but my temporary bed position prevented me from working on the right side. Then, I noticed a tile was loose on the front of the hearth, and needed to be re-attached. The compounding effect suddenly made me think of the original job (still not on the list) so I went back to that.

By this time I needed a coffee break, which gave me time to think of more things that weren’t on the list. Then I realised that I hadn’t started on the jobs that were! I realised I was out of control, I was in a tail spin with smoke streaming out of my arse, I needed to pull up hard.

I relaxed, sipped my drink and thought ” What would Pete do?”

So I calmly opened up my little book and made a new list.

I was contented.