Some things take longer than others

It is currently 7.30pm and I have been back about 10 minutes or so; today has been a LONG day!

The front room last night

Last night was very pleasant, after I finished the blog I made my omelette with nardenitsa (sausage) and onions, and then some tomatos and serenai (white cheese) crumbled on top. Then was some music (I picked Chris Rea) and then the fire and some relaxing conversation.

So to this morning where my alarm was actually set but I woke up with a thick head which I could not shake no matter how hard I tried. After picking the men up we went straight to ViK (not veka; oops) but the lady we needed was not there and anyway I had forgotten to pick up my documents in the morning (blame the slow brain which was still refusing to wake up). I went to fill my car up with petrol, then we stopped for more Banichkas (they really are incredibly nice) and bought a few more plumbing bits, a standard stiff bristled brush and some cement and then went up to the school.

We were able to give the very quiet slightly strange son of my neighbour a lift into the centre of the local town from the bridge across the river, which was a nice thing.

The front yard, swept. No, really I did!

Once we had got up to the school I decided to wake myself up with some heavy work and so set myself to starting to sweep the yard; there is a lot of glass from broken windows and I am driving my car onto it every day. My friend was upstairs with the kettle at the time, and the men were clustered still around the hole where the plumbing was.

They were digging out a space for the box to put around my water meter and the valves to turn the water off to the building from outside.

After a morning brew, the Banichkas (I might have had two) and sweeping where the worst of the glass was on the yard (but still with a completely woolly head and operating at about 75%) my friend and I went back to hers to get my paperwork. Upon arriving one of her neighbours was there demanding that some bricks she had had delivered and put in front of the gate to the (empty) house next door be moved, and now now NOW! So we set to and within about half an hour had moved about 100 heavy concrete bricks across to nearer the house, to make space for a purported delivery of bricks on a mahoosive truck. We just checked when we got back and it really does look like no such delivery took place. The good thing was, though, that this effort while it knackered my back for a bit did wake me up finally.

From there it was into town to pick up a job lot of padlocks and rings to lock down more of the doors, and 7m x 5m of polythene so that the empty window into what will be my bedroom can be sealed before I leave for the winter. On the way Bekir phoned and we were diverted into the town near the school where, in the hardware shop, my friend passed the phone to the proprietress and Bekir explained what he needed; a princely sum of 2 Lev was handed over and we were back to the school.

I was feeling very nervous at this time because I thought maybe the men had decided to re-plumb from the clock to the house and as I pulled up I could see Sally digging near the school. Oh no, I thought, they are digging more trenches!

Sally and his water feature

It turned out that this was not the case and what had to be done was a quick look to see which pipe led where. The valves and joiners we had bought were installed quickly and Sally got to have his own shower until Bekir turned the water off and stopped the fun.

Yes it was this cold; about 4 degrees

It was another cold day today and so we were all wrapped up warm.

I was feeling a bit unhappy at this point as I felt we were spending so much time on the water - having had the free water running within 2 hours of Monday morning here we were nearly Thursday lunch time and we were still fannying around with water. The situation was, however, that the water board were expecting to inspect the installation and therefore we had to get it to a state where they will sign it off; it would not be good to have managed to get them to approve the connection and then decide to leave it til March.

Gorgeous dog

About this time a dog and a cat appeared, the dog was gorgeous!

Not a meeting of minds

They went to make friends with each other but, when the cat raised its hackles, the dog decided not to bother and ran off to where Bekir gave it a tin of meat; shortly after it stole a loaf of bread from Bekir and ran round the back of the house to eat it. Apparently it was a hunting dog and I thought he was gorgeous; I really hope he comes back next year so I can encourage him to stay :) what a gorgeous animal.

Now cement started to be made and the frame for the box was made and then remade as it became apparent the first attempt would have stood too proud of the ground.

Finished water box

Within a short time the box was completed and the metal lid donated kindly by my friend was in place. All we had to do now was wait til tomorrow for the cement to go off and then we could put another ring in to attach the padlock to to keep someone from stealing the water meter clock.

The pile of wood I moved upstairs

While all this was going on my friend and I had decided to move the wood upstairs and so this we did, however it was very cold and so pretty soon I was carrying it on my own; not that I minded because this effort really did warm me up quickly.

Finally, about 4pm, the men finished outside and were inside carrying wood up with me.

The beam being broken

Then things moved fast. First of all a few beams were inserted to support the roof and then the snapped beam (which has been pictured multiple times on here) was removed with a sharp kick.

Balancing act

Next a cross beam was attempted to be put in but the way the roof was sagging in meant they couldn't raise it. So Bekir climbed out through the hole and started removing the tiles from the roof, sticking his head outside.

Bekir through the roof

I dashed out the back into the back garden and took some pictures.

Sally on the roof

Then Sally appeared and climbed outside and started walking around, clearing more and more tiles until the whole area we were attempting to support was cleared.

Bekir and my smiling neighbour

Finally for today the beam was attempted again but even with help from my smiling man from next door we were not able to hammer, cudgel, push or thump the supporting up-beam into place and we had to heath-robinson abit.

Heath Robinson joinery

By this time it was well past leaving time and so we called it a day, with Bekir nodding off in the back seat and who can blame him.

Chicken wings with leek and potatoes are cooking in the oven, and I am off for a shower and refill on my beer.

Cheers