No longer on my own

This is going to be short and sweet and I make no apologies. It is late when I set myself to do the blog and I haven't done that much of variety anyway.

Just before the sun rose

So I woke this morning to a stunning sky; standard really. I snoozed for an epic amount of time, even after I'd hit the "OK.. OK..." button on my phone I stayed in bed and slept more. I had no desire to water the plants first thing and I wasn't overly thirsty so nothing was there to drag me out of bed. Feeding time went well other than I had to leave them in their enclosure as I was leaving pretty much straight away to collect the men. They were ready and we left on time, with nothing really interesting to say about the journey.

Burning all my rubbish

When I got back I had breakfast of marmalade on toast as frying up was low on my list of priorities; today I had to clean and tidy and make the house beautiful for my new guest or should I say co-conspirator. First of all I did all the washing up and then I scrubbed the cooker with a wire brush and then the draining board and finally I washed the washing up bowl. The hoover had been got out last night to use but I found that the filters were dusty as I hadn't washed them post-use last time so I had done this yesterday. Before hoovering, the last thing on my list, I went and did the burn of all the rubbish I had built up. It did not take long, as usual, to be a conflagration.

The dust clears

While I was outside I thought it was very quiet on the roof and wondered what was going on. Suddenly Bekir appeared at the edge and tipped a wheelbarrow full to the brim with dust and rubble. Silence does not always mean lack of activity.

Shifting tiles on the roof

Again as I turned away from the fire to go back in I saw that they were now in the process of moving the stacks of tiles into a more useful location, and also so they could get to the dirt that was piled on this side of the roof. The reason there is so much dust up there is the old building method didn't have the plastic sheets to add waterproofing; it used mud to block the cracks between the wood. Now all the "waterproofing" mud was all over the floor.

A Tomato plant has appeared

Finally for this burning I had to go back out as I had forgotten a load of cardboard piled near the back door and when I was again turning to go back in a plant on the ground near the drum caught my eye. Could it be? It was. There is a pretty healthy looking Tomato plant with several flowers on it growing there. I must have dropped some tomato seeds from a butty up there at some time. I will now start to water and care for this; I hope it provides me with more fruit.

A still life of work ongoing on the roof

I went up onto the roof mid morning to see how it was going, offer them a brew, and let them know that I was off to the airport shortly to collect someone. Oh yeah. As I climbed the stairs I took a quick candid shot before they saw me; Bekir sat in the shade directing operations, Orhan looking over something or other and Sally on the end of a shovel.

Rambo has traded T in for the new model

I made myself known, had a brief conversation (including asking Bekir to get me some fresh bread and eggs from the mobile shop when it arrived; he did say it would be expensive but I didn't really have an option today with how busy my morning was) and also looking for Mahmet who was out on the fence line again being bothered by Rambo again. After hoovering and finishing cleaning Room 13 I warned the men I was having a shower and then went and had it. Then it was into Thomas and driving across to the airport.

Just about to fly back to Stanstead

I made good time as usual and was there about an hour before the flight was due; my plans to have a doze in the car before going in were derailed by a military transport landing and taxiing so I went to try and get a picture and by the time I decided that I wasn't going to, I couldn't be bothered to go back to Thomas to rest; I headed inside, grabbed a cappuccino, and read my book. After a while I grabbed one of the hot sandwiches they sell which wasn't that great but filled a hole. I went to get my carparking ticket validated however as I was heading over the machine broke and then She appeared and I was distracted so didn't get a picture. After a quick conversation with a very friendly man with a machine gun we were able to get the ticket done at the cafe however this delay meant that the queue for the single exit gate was huge and was not helped by a series of people who hadn't bothered to pay for the parking. There were people beeping right at the back of the line though I'm not sure what they expected to achieve. I forced my way out, channeling my London-driving-style from a few years back, and then we were on the road. We were so delayed by all this fannying around that the plane she had arrived on was taxiing to leave; the picture isn't great (we were moving) but there you are.

Burning the food in the traditional way

The drive back was uneventful other than following an English Audi A6 or A8 which was driven by someone who could go fast on straights but hung on the brakes for any corners; pathetic. I actually overtook it finally as we were dropping down into town. I took quite a lot of pleasure in this because I'm childish. We stopped past the shops to get my some more screws, and then to go food shopping and try to get a couple of fans but all the boxes were opened so I chose to buy none in case things were missing. We then made it back home and the boys were super happy to see her, bouncing around after I had finally managed to get them to sit long enough to open the gate. There followed a period of unpacking and wandering around and just before it was time to take the men we started putting the new BBQ together. I left before it was completed and when I got back (having followed another Englishman, apparently, up the cheren put towards the men's village; we're becoming common over here) I found the BBQ glowing, the homemade burgers in hand and very little for me to do but chop an onion. Shortly after I took over the manly job of burning the food and did an exceptional job of it if I say so myself.

And dinner is served

We sat and ate on the balcony, serenaded as is too often the case by music that faded in and out from across the valley. Ralf sat looking at us with huge eyes but neither of us were in the mood to give any food away at all. After dinner we took a quick turn around the land, looking at the things growing and with Her getting eaten alive by mozzies. We now have a few tasks to do tomorrow including digging out a bed for the Red Orachs and planting them.

The sun goes down. Again.

The blog wouldn't be complete without a picture of the sunset so here it is. Specially for you. The fireworks have just gone off for the wedding that was causing the disturbing music so hopefully they will all now go home and leave our evening in peace.

That's your lot for today, and you should count yourself lucky you got that much. Oh, and there is no water again... not even on the free supply. Joy.