Friday: A floor gets laid
After much procrastination I finally chained myself to the
Laptop and completed the first draft of my Presentation. The driving force
behind this sudden flurry of activity was an instant message from IM
offering to review my work so I thought it a good idea to have something to
review. That session went reasonably well and, although I have some work to do,
I am heading in the right direction.
On the home front; Chippy Ian arrived bright and early and
made a start on laying the floor boards. By the end of the day just over half
the room had been finished and it is going to look fantastic on completion. Ian
thinks it will be done by Monday and I will then take over and fix the skirting
boards and convert the corner alcove in to a cupboard. I just hope that my
carpentry skills are up to it. Ian also gave me a mission to complete over the
weekend as he needs about one hundred and fifty oak plugs cutting to conceal
the screws that hold the oak boards to the joists. He will also need to come
back at some point to finish the installation of the fireback but his work
schedule and the need to acquire vermiculite and fireproof mortar means that
this will be at some yet to be defined point in the future.
Saturday:
Today started with the now regular trip in to Redditch to drop TP off for his voluntary duties at the
Charity Shop. 30% accompanied me and we killed several birds with the same
stone by combining this trip with a visit to the Super Market and other retail
establishments. Key visits were the Butchers where we collected the leg of pork
for the next air dried ham and the Gallery next door where, after two weeks of
waiting, the half wit manager presented us with three mounts that were the
wrong size. After the two week wait we were somewhat riled when he advised that
he could re-cut the mounts and have then ready by lunch time…
… needless to say we took a refund and I found myself
cutting the mounts later in the afternoon.
The day continued at a leisurely pace and we were joined for
supper by 30%’s brother’s Girlfriend who, from this point forward will simply
be referred to as Emma because the relationship based descriptive is far too
complicated for my liking. She had been made redundant this week and Stevie is
in Madrid at
the moment so she joined us for “tea and sympathy”. She has taken this really
positively and is already polishing up her CV and linking up with contacts to
find a new position.
Sunday: Air Dried Ham - day one
It was another early start with a walk around the Three
Miler with T&M whist 30% dropped TP off at the Rugby Club for pre-match
practice. We then drove back to the club later to watch the match …
… it is probably best if I leave it there as they had an
appalling match, played indifferently at best and got their sorry arses kicked
by a very strong opposition.
After lunch I dragged the leg of pork from the fridge and
started the air drying process. It is now sitting in a large plastic box,
packed with 25 kg of salt and underneath a weighted board. It needs to be
salted and pressed for 3 to 4 days per kilogramme of pork and at 14.5 lbs it
will be the end of the month before it is ready to be washed, wrapped and hung
up in the garage to dry.
I spent most of the remaining afternoon out in the garage
where I was supposed to be cutting oak plugs for Ian…
… I actually found a few off cuts of oak floor boards and
knocked up a picture frame instead.
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