Away again, balcony program

It's been another busy week as I've been away to Belgium for the past week. Angela was here and snapping pics through the week as she also did everything else. I'll go through my trip away then have a look at what they got up to.

Sat on the plane ready to fly

Spraying the anti freeze everywhere

Stunning sunset from the plane

What a great room this was

Pretty good breakfast every day

Nice beer, chips and burgers

This steak was a very VERY nice thing!

A lot of fun bowling

My flight was an evening one which worked a lot better really. I was able to spend time with Angela and Rosie in the morning before heading off. I had a great seat and just caught sight of them spraying the antifreeze onto the wings; that isn't something you see every flight. The view as we headed across Europe of the sun going down was really special as well. I caught three trains across Europe and reached the final station to find no taxis in sight and so I ended up walking twenty minutes to the hotel. It really was a very good hotel, the room was really comfortable and the food there was incredible. I also went out a few times, had some INCREDIBLE steak at a small place in Bruges and also went bowling which was also great.

I got dropped right here by the taxi

The first statue I found

Going for a ride

Another statue I found

Amazing costumes next to the organ grinder

Walking in the dunes

Getting ready for some water sports

My friend with a sandcastle we found

Bruges is a lovely place and I will definitely be trying to go back with the whole family. I had a lovely time walking around taking boring pictures of amazing architecture. I had a lot of trouble getting there, though, as Belgium just doesn't do public transport it seems. There were horse-drawn carts to explore, lots of statues and also a big group of people dressed up as if they were going to a mask-e-rade.  It was great. I then met up with an old friend and we went to Zeebrugge, walked on the beach in a gale, drank some very nice beer and whisky and then I was back to the airport for a very delayed flight home and finally a loooong drive back which got me home at 5am.

A cold frame that was a pain to assemble

Getting the toilet pumps reassembled

Breakfast time for Rosie

A petchka in Grandma's room

Working on the plaster board in the balcony

Now we have two heaters per side

Grandma is collected, time for lunch

So back to what was happening at home. Actually, just before I left Angela and I put together a cold frame for the garden. But NOW what happened while I was away. First of all the men fitted the new bellows pumps to the toilet pumps and then tried to get the upstairs toilet working however it's been a bit dodgy and today stopped working again; these toilets are so unreliable. The rest of the week was a lot of effort on Angela and Rosie's part to get the house ready for Grandma arriving while the men, with the toilet finally fixed, focused on the balcony. They were fitting the second two heaters and then continuing with the rest of the plaster-boarding. Finally on Saturday it was time to collect Grandma from the airport, and to stop for food at the good Italian restaurant.

Fitting the spot lights

Wiring up the switch

Taking dirt out of the chimney

Xena watches Bekir up the ladder

Getting the petchka fully cleaned

The lights now work

Putting up insulation

I was too tired yesterday to do the update however there really hasn't been much to take pictures of in the current tasks. Yesterday morning they got stuck straight in to fitting the lights in the corridor and then after lunch spent some time cleaning the chimney and fixing the pipes for the kitchen petchka which has been smoking badly. This morning they finished the job with a full pipe clean before going back into the roof to finish the lights (they are all done now). They also took down the old ventilation pipe from the humanure collection point as the wind has been making the metal spinner make really loud noises at night. The final task was to keep going on the insulation task in the roof. There's no sign of the window people coming back to fit the doors yet though.

So there it is; caught up and back to daily updates again. Thanks for reading, back tomorrow.