First day of Bayram

Hey everyone, well today is a national holiday for people of Turkish extraction, which includes Bekir and Sally and therefore I have no workmen for a Monday morning. I don't have them back until Thursday as it happens. So I am on holiday as well and that is, according to Wikipedia, what Bayram means - see here.

Such a heavy fog

My early night last night was a success as I slept right through but woke at 6am and lay there grumbling to myself (and texting my oldest friend, who replied saying how much he enjoyed this blog so hey there fella) as I couldn't fall asleep and at about 7 I decided to give it one last go by pulling the covers right up over my head to muffle the sound of the sparrows which were whirring past the open window and door up to the roof, then back down again, and disturbing me. This worked and I woke, reluctantly, at about 8 and dragged myself finally out of bed. It was super misty when I first woke up, but by this time it had all burned off.

I brewed up and went straight for the feeding run and today it was super simple. They were barky again at the gate but quieted quicker and then Ralf didn't need any foot-provided encouragement to get into his corner and he waited while I went and put Rambo's bowl down, and while I put his and didn't run around barking and jumping like he has. He got lots of fusses from me as he was feeding and I hope this is the beginning of him really learning about feeding time and food not being his until it is given to him.

I returned to my desk to wait for my friend to arrive as we had arranged to head into town together today for a few bits and pieces. As I sat there the mist which had burned off while I was sleeping returned, and it really came in very fast indeed; it felt like I glanced away from the window for a minute and looked outside and the trees had disappeared. It didn't last long and by the time my friend arrived and we sat down for a brew and chat before heading off it had cleared again.

After said brew and chat I showed off where I have planted the vines (they were given to me by her) and then she drove and we headed into town. It was a good trip which resulted in 100% success, actually more than that as I bought some things I didn't think I'd find this trip. We returned, via Lidl where I bought stuff which I didn't mean to, and then as we were driving back to drop me off my friend exclaimed as pulled over to the side of the road as she had spotted a large flock of storks circling ahead. I sat in the car as she snapped pictures and then remembered I had my phone so I took some myself, and also the video above. I do wish I had my big camera and zoom, though. There would have been some excellent shots.

I was pretty hungry by the time I got back as I hadn't had breakfast before leaving this morning and our efforts to find a pizza place for some brunch had failed as they must all be Turkish owned. I put the heat on underneath the left overs of the pasta from last night then went and let the boys out. I didn't take the lead this time and got Ralf to follow closely behind back to the house. He's getting better. My pasta was lovely again however the seconds I stole last night were lacking today so I had a couple of slices of toast to fill the hole.

Ready for trimming to size

After munching through this I decided that my shopping trip was not enough to be able to feel like I'd achieved enough today and headed outside to the woodshed (a room in the green building, but woodshed sounds better I think) to select some to make the fence posts with. At first I pulled out two huge thick beams but when I put them down near the cutting tool I changed my mind and went and picked out six shorter chunks that I could trim to size, and were much thinner and more suitable.

Bent nail with the blank for depth guidance

It is easy to make a fence - you just fix the cross pieces to the posts. For me, however, who needs to be able to weed without a problem I was not able to just bash nails through and leave them so I started working out how to make little notches for the cross pieces to slot into. First of all I attempted using small sections of a broken chair but I bent two or three nails trying to attach it to the first fence post and gave up. I did, while looking for a suitable leg, find out where Rambo had been going for a poo inside so I rubbed his nose in it a little and told him off. Once again, though, even though he has done it in the wrong place, there were three or four different piles all together in the same place. He's not a bad dog, just doesn't know it is wrong as the floor is dusty. Anyway, with the bent nails I had an inspiration and got some large nails, using the failed attempt as a blank, and hammered and bent a nail into the correct shape. Success.

Bedded in with gravel and stones

It did not take long for me to get a bent nail into each fence post, at the same distance from the top of the post, and then I was over to the gravel pile again with the wheelbarrow to fill it up as my plan was to fill the holes around the posts with gravel and sand and not use any concrete and see how this went. The first post went in really well, nice and upright and feeling quite stable though I think the horizontal isn't the issue; it is more how secure they are vertically when I pull the cross pieces out.

The first fence in place

I cracked through the rest, then collected the cross pieces I had selected before and laid them across the nails. Wouldn't you know, it worked. I had to spend a bit of time hammering and pulling nails out of the cross pieces but this also worked out as I was also able to hammer down the soil and gravel around each post and make them a little more secure. As I said, they are a little vertically insecure so I think I may pour a small amount of concrete, to bind them a little bit. Either way I am really happy how this has worked out so I will progress to the other side and then see if Rambo stays off the beds or I need to surround them completely. It will be nice to get rid of the chairs which are protecting the flowers at the moment as well.

One funny thing that happened while I was out was the sheep dog attempted to sneak up the side track but Rambo saw it and it really did run very fast and look very scared. This is the one which is so brash and always tried to attack and be aggressive when I am out so it was great to see Rambo imposing himself so well and projecting his aura at the local dogs. I praised him a lot for this.

Clouds covering the sun

With this completed I headed inside to relax for the rest of this holiday day. I had a very nice short call from the UK and then put the cricket on to find that England are once again good at a sport. Which is nice. I have really enjoyed my afternoon just watching the cricket and chatting to my friend and other people online. With the way the sun travels I struggle in the afternoon sometimes with glare on the screen and today, with the temperature in this room getting up above 30 degrees for most of the day (and now, at nearly 8pm, it is only just dipping below 30 now), I again struggled. That was until the sun dipped behind a cloud and I took this opportunity to pop onto the roof and get some pictures. There was the briefest of showers around this time, one drop only landing on me, then five minutes later a few more descending, but it never really developed and now the whole sky is clear and it is a lovely evening.

A wood wasp

While I was sat relaxing I had a visitor and not one that is usually welcome. One of the wood wasps that looks so scary but is actually really not an aggressive creature. I snapped a load of pictures, working with manual focus and other focus settings as a fun exercise and I am pretty happy with how this and a few others came out. I left this to fly around, not getting the RAID MAX out, and it has flown away to scrape some wood from elsewhere in the house. This reminds me that I was dodging wasps quite a lot earlier in the wood shed as I selected the wood for the posts. They are everywhere at the moment.

The minute he heard me light the hob.....

It was suddenly time for me to cook and I started the oil for my chips, did their first time in the fryer then let them rest while I started my sausages. It was really amusing that as I was first going over to start cooking Ralf was laid out on the landing (he is back on his lead after my discovery of his turd pile) and then he jumped up and ran in and spent the entirety of the rest of my cooking time sleeping right by the cooker. He is a chancer, I'll give him that. At one point I dropped a mouldy piece of potato on the floor and he pounced on it but he only picked it up so I took it off him, told him off, and have recycled it. He must learn that the only food he is allowed is that which I give him.

In the sun, chilling out

I did tease Ralf about this and he was very cute, rolling onto his back and allowing me to fuss him (and pull more burs off him) which is lovely. I do like this dog when he is obedient; I just wish he was so more. So I was going to ring my nan just now but the cricket is still on so I think I'll wait for that to finish; she will be watching it. I'm not going to publish this just yet as the sunset is going to be lovely tonight and I don't want to add that picture as an edit.

Gorgeous sunset again

So it hasn't actually taken that long to get my sunset picture for the blog. I got LOADS of pictures and they are pretty much all stunning but this one, with the sun fully behind the cloud but spraying rays of light up down left and right. How gorgeous. It has been a while since I've enjoyed one as the clouds have been pretty thick in the evening recently. Just after that I took Ralf outside to relieve himself and again he was very obedient and came straight back inside,though he did dash towards the men's changing room to have a sniff around for food. I stopped him, suffice to say.

So tomorrow I am seeing no one apart from Lubo who is coming over with my project for me to review and sign, and to draw on the walls of the kitchen to show where we can knock through in that wall. Time to relax for the evening.

A weekend with friends

Four weeks to go...

Four weeks until the leaving party, family meal and then getting in the vehicles and starting the long drive towards Bulgaria...

Wow; when you start to think about it in those terms it really does sink in just how soon it is, just how soon my life is going to change completely and just how little time I have left (thank God) before this blog can stop talking about what I'm going to do when I leave, and start talking about what I am doing because I have left.

So this weekend, as part of my series of "for the last time" I went down to my old home town of Reading to catch up with people who I love and have been important to me over my life. I had planned on driving Thomas down and sleeping in the back of the truck as my trip was a flying visit; go down on Friday, come home on Saturday night. This plan was scotched by discovering, during the day on Friday, that my MOT had run out on Thomas and so I couldn't renew my road tax.

I was able to book him into a garage next to my work carpark for an MOT that afternoon however two very small things caused a fail and my plans had to change. I booked a train and a hotel for the evening and actually the trip down was quite comfortable; it is pleasant to be able to read while you're travelling as opposed to having to concentrate when you are driving.

Having a whiskey with Neil

I arrived, after several hours on trains, in Wokingham and walked down to the studio where I first learnt my craft as a young teenager. Neil arrived shortly afterwards and we went for a couple of pints and then a curry at a restaurant where we used to go very often, back in the day. This was such a lovely evening, it was like it hadn't been years since we had spent time together, and reinforced just how awesome it is to have met this man and become close to him. I really do hope he will come visit me out there, and I look forward to the next time I can arrange for a curry with him. Cheers Neil!

Welcomed by the TV

I was dropped by Neil at the Coppid Beech in Binfield, just round the corner from where I used to live. Indeed I did some sound engineering once in the venue at the hotel back in the day so it was another example of going back to my roots. When I got into my room I was amused to see my name on the TV welcoming me; suffice to say that the TV was turned off immediately and I started getting ready for bed.

My room

Just as I got into bed the fire alarm went off so it was back on with the clothes, grab my kindle, and out into the corridor to start exiting the hotel; before I'd got too far the alarm stopped again so all of the guests turned round and went back to their rooms. The room was lovely; really comfortable and with an opening window which is a rarity. I left the window open all night and the gales and storms blew rain in but I slept so well with the lovely fresh air and comfortable bed. Breakfast was also very tasty indeed and it was a nice moment for me to sit there quietly, on my table for one, chilling out and watching the world go by.

My next plan was to meet my oldest friend (who I have known since I was eight years old) Wardy and I booked a taxi from the hotel to take my back to Wokingham station however, when I got in, the driver warned me of gridlock due to flooding and so took me the other direction on the line to Bracknell. I really was going on a tour of my old haunts.

My oldest friend

The journey was easy and I couldn't see any flooding and it was another great pleasure to see my old friend walking towards me across the station with a hug and a welcome. Many questions about all this Bulgaria thing ensued in the car going towards his house and then I met his lovely wife and two daughters (three years old, and a few months old) and we spent an exceptionally pleasant afternoon chatting and showing pictures (he of the family, me of the school.... well what else am I going to show off!) and a lovely meal cooked by his lovely wife.

It was during the afternoon that I thought "well I'd better check the trains back" and it was a good thing that I did. It appeared that there were no trains leaving Reading and getting up to Manchester; the furthest north I could make it was Birmingham. A few phone calls and I had arranged for my long-suffering parents to pick me up, put me up, and drop me back for the 9am train the next morning. Also the meal with my best friend and his parents was moved forwards by half an hour.

Wardy dropped me over at the aforementioned friends house and we went straight out of the door to our meal at the Winning Hand. The excitement for the weekend was not over by any means as just after we arrived, as we were sitting with a drink looking at the menus, all the lights went off. Cue much confusion and concern by the staff who flicked all the trip switches they could find but to no avail. My guess is one of the phases coming into the building had died somewhere outside the building as the kitchen did still have light and power.

Best friend

So, we ate our meal by candlelight and the staff did a very good job of keeping us informed and happy (and fed - the food was excellent).

We ate without hurry but managed to get back to the station in time for an earlier train than expected which I managed to make by the skin of my teeth; I am pretty sure that they had locked the doors and unlocked them for me. I was on my way north.

The journey to Birmingham was pretty easy and I arrived on time to be met by my mother and taken to a nice warm bed for the night; better than I had planned if I was driving which involved grabbing an hour or so in the back seat of Thomas. The morning was efficient too and I was back on the platform in plenty of time for the 9am train. Which eventually pulled out of New Street at about 9.20 and then proceeded to go all around the houses and get into Manchester eventually about 1 hour 20 minutes late.

So to home and a doze off on the sofa watching France thrash Italy; a shame. I am reinforced in my hatred of public transport as it is never available at the time which is convenient for you and when you do get on it, you have to put up with noisy ignorant people (like the Wednesday fans that were singing and roaring on the trip from Reading to Birmingham) and you are dependent on other people turning up on time to drive the thing.

A walk through the school - attic and outside

This is the final entry in the "walk through" series of blogs. If you have read them all you will have seen all the downstairs and first floor of the school. In this one I am going to show you the attic and also a fair few pictures taken outside around the land and the outbuildings.

There are a lot of pictures in this update so I shall begin where I left off...

We are on the 1st floor landing, stairs down to the right, attic stairs behind the door

The stairs up to the attic - note they are concrete too

The final bit of the stairs into the attic

Looking back over the stair well showing the beams etc

A hole in the roof which wasn't there a few months ago

A massive collection of bottles in the attic

Looking towards one end of the attic

Some abandoned desks - scarily they seem almost structural

The dirty great big hole in the roof by the chimney

The little window which I discovered taking these pictures

Looking towards the other end of the attic and....

... back up again

And outside we go...

Out the front door and to the right

Looking round the corner; to the left is the garden the neighbours "borrowed"

And back round the next corner along the back of the school

Panorama of the land behind the school

A selection of the trees and bushes on the land

The outhouse with external toilets and ash storage

A badly done panorama down towards the car entrance past the green shed

The green shed (with sheep visitors)

Looking along the green shed (school facing this side)

The current pedestrian entrance and little copse

The entrance to the school, slightly overgrown

This is the other side of the overgrown, showing the gate

Looking up towards the car entrance (back right)

And finally looking towards the school under my favourite shading trees

So there you have it. I have more pics than this but I didn't want to bore you so I've pulled out the best ones. As things change I will put more pictures on (obviously) but it'll be very interesting for me to look back at these in a couple of years and remind myself of just where I have come from.

Here's to starting the work and making this fabulous building a lovely house.

A walk through the school - upstairs

My previous blog was a walk through of the downstairs of the school building. For this one I will walk you through the upstairs.

Here goes, follow me..........

We're at the bottom of the stairs...

Half way up is a back door (padlocked)

Turning back we go up the final flight

Two shots of the upstairs landing here, not showing the door we're about to go through

Here is the door off the landing to the room in front of the stairs (E's room)

This is E's room

The door into the laboratory

The laboratory with blown in window from gales!

Some cool glassware on the top shelf in the laboratory

Back in the landing looking towards Room 13 and the corridor

Room 13 with lots of saved stuff (note the abacus)

Looking down the corridor towards my bedroom at the end

The large room which I may split into guest rooms

This is going to be the living room

Looking into my bedroom; the gap will become an indoor window

The panoramic view from my bedroom window and the balcony

So there you are; that is a brief walk through of the upstairs. Next I will do one of these to show you around the roof space (which isn't much) and the land (if I have some good pictures of it which I think I do)

Thanks for reading.