Posts that Didn't Happen - January 2022

 So here's my January retrospective . . . and can't say it started well:

After being super-careful not to take Covid to family for the 'Christmas' visit - it turned out they already had it, and I brought it home with me.

At least I escaped with a relatively mild experience - just felt like I was getting a cold for a couple of days, then it went away.  No real cough or aches and pains - I've had much worse from a common cold!

Took a while to test negative, but Martin never caught it - neither did my sister (the brother-in-law was patient 0 and felt pretty bad), or Mum (Dad tested positive but didn't have any symptoms).

So hopefully that's our brush with Covid done with!

On a more positive note . . . 

Phil is still around and about the place, enjoying his peanuts.

And Martin entered his half century - marked by a Chinese takeaway with family (post self-isolation!).  We'll have to plan for his proper celebration trip when the whole Covid thing allows. 

The Folly also now has decorated walls, electricity, lighting and internet, a fully fitted vinyl plank floor, and skirting boards.  In fact the builders and electricians are all done and dusted.

Which just leaves the wood burning stove, which is proving to be a bit more problematic.

Can't say we've been impressed by the fitter. 

The builders had been done for a couple of weeks before he finally turned up to lay the hearth - then he couldn't get the flue to attach to the outside wall and had to come back twice to get some struts in place to attach it to.

As it stands there is still a hole through the wall and no flue - but at least the stove is out of its box, and in the Folly awaiting further developments. 

In 2021 I Mostly Read . . .

So let's start with the reading list for 2021:

October-December 2021- mostly playing sudoku, except for one 99p foray into Kim Watt's Beaufort Scales mysteries, with book 1 Baking Bad, which was ok, but don't think I'll bother with any more (despite the dragons).

September 2021 - in our quest to decide whether or not we want a campervan - Mike Hudson's How to Live in a Van and Travel interesting and informative.

August 2021 - a couple of 'lifestyle' offerings - Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life - interesting stuff (basically keep moving!). Followed by Kate Humble's Living Simply.

June-July 2021 - Yes, you've guessed it - another 99p job. The Unhappy Medium by T.J. Brown. This one is markedly better - the premise is interesting and new (to me anyway), the writing is more sophisticated, and it strikes a humorously sarcastic tone in its view of modern life. For whatever reason it isn't however really gripping me, and I'm taking a rather long time to finish it. I will though!

April-May 2021 - And another one (inbetween the more serious Neil Oliver), Lynn Morrisons Murder at St Margaret. Described as a 'cozy' humourous paranormal mystery, it was alright - it kept me reading to the end, and I didn't actively dislike any of the characters (the wyvern was a bit annoying), but it was a bit derivative, and nothing special. I think the author is American as well, and there were a few bits where it got the British setting wrong. It's the first in a series, but I probably won't bother with the others.

April 2021 - On to another 99p-er, this time Neil Oliver's Wisdom of the Ancients: Life lessons from our distant past - maybe it's because I'm getting older, but a lot of what he says in the first couple of chapters really chimed with me - will see how the rest of the book goes.

April 2021 - Time to finally read some of those 99p Kindle purchases. Starting with David Mitchell's Slade House - a series of interlinked literary fantasy short stories - slightly spooky, but certainly kept my attention! Will have to look out for its companion piece The Bone Clocks going cheap - it was good, but now £6.99 worth of goodness.

January-April 2021 - Tolkien all the way. Were in the process of re-watching all the films (Hobbit and LOTR) - then read Ian Nathan's excellent narration of the process of making the three LOTR films, Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-earth. So, having watched the films, and read the 'making of' book', it was time to look back at the books and see where it all came from. Really interesting to contrast The Hobbit, with the three Lord of the Rings volumes, and in the case of the latter, see how the book translated into the film - who actually said that speech, where had they made changes. I have of course read LOTR many, many times, but not for a few years, and I was particularly struck this time by Tolkien's use of language, and the saga-like tone that he brings to it. I did rather skim the Appendices though - something to look at again when we get a chance to see what Amazon have made of Middle-earth!

January 2021 - Last of the current Dresdens - Battle Ground - epic battle indeed, almost the entire supernatural world facing off against a Titan and her Fomor armies in the battle for Chicago. There were some light-hearted moments, but we also say a heart-breaking goodbye to a much-loved character (had to happen sometime). On now to the last of the short stories in Side Jobs and Brief Cases - shedding some light on a couple of story points in the books too. All good stuff - hopefully book 18 (Twelve Months?) will make it out sometime in 2021.

Apologia

So it's 2022 - and as I write this it is November of 2022 - which means I have been a very bad blogger.

In retrospect - given that 2022 has managed to show that Covid is not necessarily the worst thing that can happen to world - it doesn't seem quite the thing to start with 'Happy New Year' inserted posts, so I'll start with an apology for not being a better blogger, and for 2022 itself.

What follows will be a mix of monthly summary blogs, and individual posts where relevant.

I'm hoping to resume normal service in December - but in the meantime, enjoy what follows - it's been a year of changes in more ways than one (and some of them are actually positive!). 

And So It's Christmas . . .

Another year, another Christmas, but with Covid a little more in the background this time (booster jabs all done!), although as it turned out not without its alternative dramas . . .

We've had some nice days, sunny walks on the prom / up Consti, etc. and a proper break over the Christmas period, with a visit to family in Cambridgeshire for 'second Christmas' in the next few days.  

The run up to Christmas has however (aside from the Folly) also been occupied with the Saga of the Fridge . . . which stopped working at the end of November, but had to wait for service engineers in Oswestry to get to us to fix it under its guarantee.

On 8 December they finally arrived, replaced a faulty fan and left saying all should now be ok - only the fridge didn't get any cooler . . . 

We then had to wait for 17 December before they made it back to diagnose the added problem (everything had frozen up and the cold air couldn't get from the freezer section to the fridge!) and actually get it running again.

All of which felt perilously close to Christmas - trying to manage Christmas cooking with one fridge drawer kept cool with freezer blocks, was not a happy thought!

Christmas day brought its own drama, with an evening trip to A&E for a tetanus jab (following a minor incident with some firewood and a rusty nail).

All well though - just a sore hand for a few days - and only had to wait for an hour or so.

Hope you had a good one!

Getting There

Another 10 days in, and the bulk of the 'building' work is now done, with everyone due to take a break now over Christmas.  

The electricians have done their 'first fix' putting the cabling for the sockets and lighting in place, and the trench down the garden has been filled in.

The builders have finished boarding out the stud walls, and have plastered throughout:

They've also got the EDPM rubber roof fixed down permanently, and a metal lining tube through the stone wall to take the chimney for the wood burner.

It's by no means finished yet though . . .

 

There's still work to do on the feature wall; skirting boards and flooring to go down; and the second / final fix on the electrics - plus having the wood burner itself fitted.

Not to mention the decorating - which is my job!

One Week On . . .

 So, work has continued apace with the 'Folly' . . . 

The new glazed door and window have been fitted - the window is a breeze block width deeper than the old one, and together with the fully glazed door, should provide a lot more light inside.

They've boarded out the floating floor and started work on battening out for the interior stud walls, and tidying up the 'feature' stone end wall.

And some serious groundworks are underway for the electric cabling - bringing the electric across from the garage, which will get an updated fuse board as part of the process.

It's all moving on nicely anyway - although the garden lawn is currently a bit of a mess!

And We're Off

So today, work officially started on the woodshed conversion - or Folly as it will probably become known.

With a lot of input from Martin, the interior had been completely cleared out . . . 

Leaving an empty shell for the builders to work with . . . although some work had already been done at the weekend to fill a crack in the back wall.

The first job they tackled was the roof - currently formed of metal sheeting (noisy in the rain and prone to condensation), and held in place by just a small number of 'rafters'.

So off came the old roof - and they were soon busy re-raftering at regulation distance.

 

By the end of the day it was raftered and boarded over, with the new EDPM rubber roof covering loosely fixed in place (ready to be stuck down when weather conditions are right).

All-in-all it feels like a lot of progress has been made in just one day ....  further updates to follow!